I Do
by Eye Heart Music
Summary: Fifteen year old Lily goes to sleep one night, despising James Potter, but when she wakes up. . .Lily still despises James Potter. . .it's just. . .she's eighteen and engaged to him. . .
1. Fluffy Little Bunnies

**Disclaimer:I don't own anything. Don't sue me. _Thanks!_ : ) **

**_I Do_. . . . **

**15-year-old Lily had yet another row with James Potter. That night,when she goes to sleep,Lily despises James Potter more than ever before,but when she wakes up. . .she still despises James Potter more than ever before,it's just. . .she's 18 and engaged to be married to him. . . **

**A/N:Okay, I was planning to start this fic a _lot_ sooner, but things got in the way. You know, Christmas and me being sick. Anyways, I'm starting it now. Also, I'm sure some of you(if not all)are thinking, 'Why in the world is this stupid author person trying to write _4_ long fic's all at the same time?' **

**Answer to that question:**

**I have no clue.**

**LoL,I really enjoy writing fic's, I guess. I'm just going to try my best at juggling 4 stories. I've beable to handle 3 of them for the past few monthes(most of the time.Now, a couple weeks, when I didn't update for while was because it was the end of my school semester and I had a lot of stuff going on, including tests. Anyways, there's a whole pointless author's note for you to enjoy! By the way, Happy Holidays! (Kind of late,I know)**

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _-Chapter 1:Cotten Candy Breathing Fluffy Little Bunnies-_ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"-WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO DIFFICULT, EVANS? I'M NOT THAT BAD!"

Lily Evans, 5th year Gryffindor Prefect, snorted halfway up the girls staircase. She stopped and turned her head slightly,"SAYING YOUR NOT THAT BAD IS LIKE SAYING DRAGONS ARE FLUFFY LITTLE BUNNIES THAT BREATH COTTEN CANDY INSTEAD OF FIRE! DO YOU KNOW WHY? BECAUSE YOU, JAMES POTTER, ARE THE BIGGEST PAIN IN THE ARSE OF THE HISTORY OF WIZARD KIND. . .ACTUALLY OF ALL _TIME_!" Lily yelled angrily.

She heard a noise of frustration and a hex yelled. Lily's eyes narrowed and her hands balled into fists. "No, Lily, I think you've had enough of Potter tonight. Someone else can yell at him for hexing. . .then again, who else is there?" Lily asked herself as she began walking up the stairs again,"Remus Lupin?" She rolled her eyes,"No."

Remus Lupin was the other Gryffindor Prefect, by the way.

No matter how nice Remus Lupin could be, he was. . ._his_friend. And Remus _never_ helped her stopped his friends from dueling or any other trouble-making activity. . .okay,maybe a few times, but that's was all.

Lily had reached the 5th year girls' dorm door and turned the knob to find an empty dormitory. She stormed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She was too angry to study for tomorrow's blasted astronomy exam(even though she needed to)!

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Lily plopped down on her bed, still in a sour mood, and began to brush through her red hair.

Of course, this wasn't unusual, about the sour mood thing.

James Potter could put Lily in a sour mood in less than a second just by being mentioned. Lily brushed sharply for another few minutes. Potter and her had had a row that night.

It had all started when Potter asked her out, yet again. . .

_"Evans', will you go out with me?" _

_"No."_

. . .and that's how it all started.

Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

Couldn't he see she didn't like him?

There were plenty of signs, at least _she_ thought, there were plenty of signs just shouting,'Lily Evans doesn't like you and doesn't want to go out with you!'

For instance. . .

_"I don't like you,James Potter!"_

_"Your such an arrogant bully,Potter!" _

_"I don't want to date you!" _

_"Go stuff your wand where the sun doesn't shine, Potter!" _

_"Stop messing up your bloody hair, Potter!" _

_"I. Don't. Like. You. At. All!" _

_"Potter, you have the biggest head I've ever seen in my life. . .and you have funny looking glasses!"_

. . .and yet, James Potter, for some unknown, probably stupid reason, still asked her out and flirted like crazy.

Oh, and the showing off! Argh! She wasn't even going to get in to that.

It seemed Lily had gotten to her boiling point when she hurled her brush out the open dorm window.

She groaned and walked over to the window with her wand. She stared down at the grounds for a few seconds.

"Stupid Potter, he made me throw the stupid brush out the stupid window to the stupid, stupid grounds."

"Accio brush." She said tiredly. The brush came flying up to her seconds later.

Lily carefully(or as carefully as Lily could when she mad)sat her brush down on her bedside table and laid down under her covers in her bed. She sighed and rolled over on her side.

'When will James Potter figure out that we'll never go out? That I'll never like him. When will that arrogant boy figure it out?' That was last Lily thought before she drift off to dreamland. . .

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**(The next morning)**

"Lily,dear,get dress!"

Lily groaned, eyes still closed, and rolled onto her stomach.

"It's already ready time to get ready for class?" She asked herself in a dreary tone. "It seems like I just fell asleep. . ." Lily snoozed for a few more minutes until she realized that none of her dorm mates said 'dear' to her.

Her eyes popped open and she turned around and laid on her back,staring at her surroundings.

This was _not_ the girls' dormitory.

This wasn't even Hogwarts! This was her bedroom! At her house! Her house that wasn't at Hogwarts!

"What the-?" She exclaimed,stumbling around on her bed till she fell off with a 'Thump!'.

"Lily, are you alright?" The voice asked again. . . .her _mothers'_ voice!

Why was she home? Had she been in coma and brought home? Over night? In her _sleep_? Lily knew she wasn't _that_ light a sleeper.

She heard her bedroom door open and footsteps. There was her mother. What was she doing here?

Lily was still trying to figure out what was going on as her mother walked around picking up this and that, talking to her,"Lily, I told you to get dress! Don't you remember their coming over today?" Her mother gave an amused laugh,"I doubt you'd forget,that boy is all you talk about these days! Of course, I don't see why not. After all, you _are_-" Her mother was cut off as the door bell rang.

Now she was _definitely_ confused.

Who was this boy? And who was this 'their'? She stood up,dazed,ready to start the questions-

Lily's mother hurridly walked to the door,"Lily, hurry up and get ready, breakfast will be ready soon and by the sounds of it,their here also." She gave an amused smile to Lily before grabbing the doorknob about to close it, when she stopped, face turning from a smile to a horror kind of face. "Oh dear,I think your father's telling them one of his jokes! I'd better get down there." And she was gone.

Lily slowly walked back to bed and sat on the edge, trying to not hyperventilate. What was the last thing she remembered?

Ah. Falling asleep thinking how stupid Potter was.

He probably did this. Yeah. She bet anything he did. Sodding Potter.

Lily, no matter how much she enjoyed blaming things on Potter,was doubting that he would do this. . .whatever _this_ was. . .she doubted he could get in her mind, he wasn't _that_ powerful, the boastful git. Besides, if he _had_ been able to get in her mind, Potter would probably have tried to conveince her to go out with him or something.

Lily could hear faint voices downstairs,other than her parents voice's,unfamiliar voices.

Where was Petunia?

She shrugged. Probably asleep.

Through the whole visit from her mum just then,Lily didn't even get a word in edgewise. Actually,Lily hadn't even thought of talking. She was too confused. And dazed. And shocked. And suprised. And her voice was gone.

Lily decided to 'hurry up and get ready' as her mother said, to investigate what in the name of Merlin's Beard was going on around here.

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"And the second man said-"

"Dear,don't you think the mail's here,yet?" Her mother's voice interrupted Lily's father's joke.

Lily had gotten 'ready'. For whom or what, she did not know.

Just as Lily was walking down the stairs,she heard her father's voice grumble an agreement and a chair shuffle in the kitchen. He was going out to get the mail.

He would be sure to see her.

For some reason, Lily didn't want to see her father. She was already confused, just by seeing her mother, imagine seeing her-

There he is!

Hide Lily.

Lily ducked against the hallway,waiting as her father passed through the front door and to get the mail.

She came out of her hiding place,feeling rather silly,hiding from her own father.

A voice jolted her out of her thoughts,"There you are,Lily! Where have you been hiding?" Her mother asked,pulling her towards the kitchen.

_'Oh,just against the wall on the staircase.'_ Lily answered in her mind. She was still having trouble getting her voice. Maybe it was hiding too.

Lily tried to struggled against her mother's hold, having one of those feelings that people,magical and nonmagical alike,get every once and a while saying,'I'm not going to like what's in the kitchen!'. . .well,maybe not many got this feeling. . .probably no one but her, but that doesnt' matter.

Lily thought maybe she could make a run for it, but no such luck.

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It turned out the feeling about not liking what was in the kitchen, was right.

"Lily!" A deep,male voice called pleasantly from the dining table.

Lily turned her head in suprise only to narrow her eyes,"What are you doing here,James Pot-oof!"

Lily was cut off as James stood up and hugged her. "Haven't seen you in a while." He said.

"Oh, yeah, your right, James, haven't her in 3 days. Oh, the horror." A sarcastic voice said at the dining table also.

Lily struggled out of James' hold on her in disgust and turned towards the table again to see the rest of the Marauders sitting at _her_ dining table. What the. . .

"What are you doing here?" Lily demanded.

"Came to see you, of course." James replied.

"Why?" Lily demanded again.

"Can't I see my fiancee every once and a while?"

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**Author's Note:There it is. What do you think? I know it's shorter than my usual chapters, but they'll get longer. I had to cut this one a little short for the cliffhanger at the end. Eh,it's sort of a cliffhanger, I guess.**

**Just Another Harry Potter Fan **


	2. Lady Friends

**Disclaimer: I own NOTHING, people. I am disclaiming this, okay? Don't sue me. Thanks: )**

**A/N: Woah. I am just blown away, completely. I mean, I wake up the morning after I submitted the first chapter of this fic and have 17 reviews in my inbox. I am just amazed. To tell you the truth, I didn't think this would be that successful. Of course, that was only the first chapter. I hope the rest are as good as the first one. I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed last chapter, thank you!**

**I've got quite a few reviews about my grammar and punctuation in the story, sorry about that. I'll try to go over the story more before I submit it. About the comma's and apostrophes, etc. I'll just try to do better. I'm only 14 years old and not that great in english. But I'll try to work on it. If anyone out there has tips on how to improve my punctuation (especially the commas) please tell me. Thanks!**

**Oh, one last thing. . .**

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE**

**SINCE THERE WERE SO MANY REVIEWS (THANK YOU SO MUCH!) I'VE DECIDED TO REPLY TO THEM IN MY LIVEJOURNAL. TO GET TO MY LIVEJOURNAL GO MY ACCOUNT PAGE, THERE WILL BE A LINK. THAT GOES STRAIGHT TO MY JOURNAL. **

**THANKS!**

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE OVER**

**There's another author's note, a bit more IMPORTANT than last chapter, lol.**

**----------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

_Chapter 2: Mrs. Evans Tries To Get Remus and Peter 'Lady Friends'_

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Lily stared at Potter wide eyed and open mouthed.

Her voice was gone again and all she could do was yell, _No! No! No,_ over and over again in her head.

It was all a misunderstanding. Yeah. She misheard Potter. What he _actually_ said was, 'Can't I see my _friend_ once and a while?'. . .they weren't friends though. . .quite the opposite really. Well, Potter wanted to be friends, more than friends, but she'd _never_ go out with that bullying, two-faced, arrogant, idiotic, git king, prat of all prats-okay, Lily come back to what you were actually trying to think about. You can go over what Potter is later.

Anyways, she'd never go out with him, much less agree to _marry_ him. Urgh.

This. . .situation was horrid. It was horrendous. It was-was confusing. And very, _very _unpleasant.

Lily would do anything right now to be waking up from the shouts of her roommates and then promptly start worrying about the astronomy exam she didn't study for because of the git, _Potter. _She'd much rather be doing that, then be standing the kitchen with her mother cooking breakfast, while Potter and his friends sat at _her_ table, eating her food. Oh, and the fact that she was engaged to Potter! Almost forgot!-hahaha. She had such a sense of humor in the least expected times-

"Lily, are you alright?" Remus asked, standing up alongside Potter. Sirius and Peter also stood up. Her mother stopped flipping the pancakes, watching Lily also, the pancakes starting to turn a faint shade of charcoal.

She didn't answer. Lily supposed she _was_ looking a bit pale and shaky and panicked and shocked and suprised and angry and-and a bit _faint. _That's probably why she felt shaky. Or was that the ground? Maybe it was. She wasn't sure. All she knew was that there were three Pettigrew's, two Remus', three Black's, and to her utmost horror _six_ Potter's standing in front of her.

Lily blinked a few times trying to clear her vision, but found no prevail.

"Oh, Merlin. . .just what I need right now. . ." Lily murmured faintly to herself,"Fourteen Marauders. . .the worse part is that six of them are. . ._Potter." _

"Lily, I think you need to sit down-" Potter started, walking to her slowly.

Lily hobbled back some clumsily, dangerously close to her mother's precious china collection,"No thank you, Potter. I'll be just find without you-"

"Lily, I think James is right, let's sit you dow-" Her mother cut in quickly, eyeing her china collection warily. Lily's father cut her off though.

"Will you believe this? The blasted mail wasn't even here yet! I walked out in rain for nothing!" Her father started in an irritated voice, but trailed off as he caught his wife's glare,"Oh, uh, not that I was _blaming_ you, dear. No, I'd _never _blame you-"

"George, nevermind that, help James get Lily up to her room. I don't think she feels well." Lily's mother commanded, as Potter, against a very stubborn Lily's protests (even though she was a bit out of it) , took a hold of one of her arms to steady her.

"What's with you, Lily?" Potter asked,"It's almost as if you don't want me to help." He said with a laugh.

Lily, also weakly, looked towards Potter before her shoulders sagged in a depressing way. "Funny you say that. . ." She trailed off.

Potter looked at her funnily,"What did you eat last night? Maybe that's why your all-"

"All what?" Lily snapped.

"Hey, don't get mad at me if you ate sour milk or something." Potter said defensively. "Although, that would be terrible, wouldn't it? I mean, if you really were food poisoned. Then the wedding would be set back!" He added.

For probably the first time since Lily woke up that day, a small smile filled her face. She sighed in content at the thought of setting back the wedding,"Yeah. . .that would be _awful._"

George immediate looked towards Lily and saw her hobbling around with Potter at her side. "Wha-?"

"George, just help Lily up the stairs-"

"We can get her up, Mrs.Evans." Remus suggested politely (like always).

Carol (Lily's mother) held up her hand, "No, your our guests."

George quickly walked over to Lily and took her other arm,"No feeling well, Lily?" He asked gently as they began the journey up the stairs to her bedroom.

Lily took a shaky breath,"Oh, you have _no_ idea, dad. None." Then promptly fainted.

Carol started to walk with them up the stairs when she glanced over at the stove. At the charcoal cakes. "Oh my lord!" She exclaimed, scrambling over and grabbing the handle of the pan with an oven mit and hurridly throwing the charcoal cakes in the nearest trash can.

Mrs. Evans started out of the kitchen again, then noticing that she still had the pan in her hand, gave it, without really paying attention, to the nearby Peter. Carol worriedly walked halfway past the china collection, stopped to examine it to make sure it was still in good condition from Lily's hobbling around, then continued after Lily, Potter, and her husband.

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Peter held up the pan in confusion,"What am I suppose to do with this?"

Sirius ignored him and grinned instead,"If we're the guests, what's James? A brother?" He asked with a snicker.

Peter snickered enthusiastically, the pan at his side now,"Ha, that would mean Lily was marrying her _brother. _Hahaha-_ow!" _He cried, rubbing his shoulder from where Remus punched him.

"Oh, cut it out, you two. James is Lily's fiance. That's why he's helping-"

"Would it really matter if he was her fiance or the muggle postman? James would still help her anyways. He'd jump off the bleedin' astronomy tower at Hogwarts if Lily asked him to. The lovestruck idiot." Sirius pointed out.

"Oh yes, he's such an idiot. James actually cares about someone other than himself. What-an-_idiot!_" Remus replied sarcastically.

"Yeah, yeah. I agree totally with you, Moony." Sirius said vaguely, not paying attention to Remus now that his eye was caught on something else. A pie. "Hey, do you think Mrs. Evans would mind if I just-?"

"Don't even think about it, Sirius. Peter, that applies to you as well." Remus warned.

The two sighed,"You ruin all the fun, Remus."

"Yes, well, someone has to." Remus said in a matter-of-factly voice.

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"-sure it was just pre-wedding jitters, James. I was like this an hour before my wedding."

Lily heard her mother say as her eyes fluttered open. She looked around to find herself once again in her bed. She turned her head a bit more, towards her window, to see her parents and Potter talking.

"An hour before your wedding?" Potter asked in exasperation,"Our wedding isn't for another three weeks, Mrs. Evans!"

She saw her mother pause for a moment,"Well, Lily's always been a nervous person. I'm sure that's all. With all of the excitement of planning the wedding herself, she must of just not really realized that she actually getting married and it just, er, shocked her. I'm that's all it was, James. Nothing to worry about. Lily loves you and wants to marry you if that's what your worried about. Oh, yes, your all she talks about this days-"

Lily sank into her quilt, pulling it over her head, face now burning. This was embarrassing. Even though she felt nothing but loathe to James Potter it was still embarrassing to have her _mother_ basically confess her own love to her fiance. Not that they were _actually_ getting married or anything like that. She would make sure of that. Great, mum's still going. . .

"-and she just thinks your-your swell-"

Lily groaned. _Swell? _

Her father must of her for he cleared his throat,"Dear, I think James gets the message. Maybe you should leave it at that before you cause, er, damage-no that's not the right word. Before you scare James away I think is the right thing. . .nevermind." He finished after a glare from Carol.

Lily took a peek at the three, glancing at Potter. He didn't seem at all embarrassed or even pink in the least. Happy, actually. He had a huge grin on his face,"She says all that stuff about me?"

"Well, of course, dear. What did you think she said about you?" Carol asked.

Potter laughed,"Oh, she hasn't always thought about me that way, as you know."

Her parents also laughed.

What were they laughing about? She was so confused.

"You should have seen our rows when we were fifteen. Those were the worst." Potter said smiling as he remembered.

Lily's heart stopped beating. . .well, not _literally._ There really wouldn't be a story if our main character just all of a sudden died. Not to mention our other main character, Potter, would be heartbroken.

Anyways, her heart _slowed_ at this information. What Potter just said was past tense. That meant being fifteen was the past! That meant they weren't fifteen! That meant she wasn't fifteen!. . .how old was she?

Lily, without warning, threw her blanket aside and ran out of the room, past her bewildered parents and Potter, to her bathroom in the hall. The door was closed and Lily turned the knob only to find it stuck. She scoffed,"Stupid door, never would open properly. I thought dad fixed it!" She finally got it open as Potter and her parents came out of her bedroom.

Lily walked into the bathroom and shut the door, hands trembling and eyes closed tight. When she had gotten dressed, Lily hadn't even taken a glance at her reflection. She flipped on the light. Lily took a deep breath,"Okay, count to three, Lily and open your eyes. . .One. . .t-"

"Lily, are you alright?" Her mother asked on the other side of the door.

Lily sighed,"Yes, I'm fine. . .tw-"

"Are you sure? Do you want some chicken soup or-"

"I'm sitting on the toilet, mum. Could this wait till after I'm out of the bathroom?" Lily lied patiently.

There was a pause,"Alright, Lily, we'll be in the kitchen if you need us. . .I'll get the chicken soup started-"

"Carol, come on." Her father's voice cut in.

Lily let out a breath and began counting again,"One. . .two. . .t-"

"Why are you counting?" James voice asked through the door.

Lily's head turned towards the door, and if her eyes were open they'd be glaring at the door. "None of your bu-. . ." Lily stopped and thought for a moment.

If she acted liked she always did around James and his friends, they'd become suspicious. They'd think she'd gone insane or something! For now, she thought depressingly, I'm just going to have be act nicer to him.

"I wasn't counting. What are you still doing here anyways?"

"I was just going to wait for you-"

"You don't need to wait. It could be a while. I'll be fine." Lily hoped he'd take the hint.

". . .Okay. Just call if you need me." He must have.

Lily gave what seemed like the hundredth sigh today, before starting counting again."One. . .Two. . .Three!" Her eyes flew open and she stared at her reflection. Lily took a caution step back."Oh, my. . ." She trailed off. This wasn't the fifteen year old self she looked at ever day in the mirror. This definitely wasn't.

Her hair was longer and more styled then in 5th year. She was a probably 5 inches taller and a little slimmer. Lily had matured; she looked so different. . .now that she thought about it. . .they all looked more matured. James and his crew, she meant. Lily hadn't really thought about it during all the shock of being Potter's fiancee.

But now, after her head was cleared a bit, they did look older. Probably in their late teens or early twenties. Lily'd have to check and see how old she actually was.

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"Ah, Lily! Are you feeling better?" Her father asked as Lily entered the kitchen a while later after the visit to the bathroom.

Potter pulled out a chair next to him for her. Lily hesitated. She didn't want to sit by Potter. But, they _were_ engaged and she had to appear as if everything was normal. Lily sat down in the chair stiffly. She sniffed. "I'm feeling better. The reason for not feeling well was probably from staying up too late last night." Lily lied.

"I checked on you at about 9:00 and you were fast asleep." Her mother pointed out slowly as she sat down a bowl of steaming chicken soup in front of Lily.

Lily's eyes widened and she gulped some,"Oh," She said in a weak voice,"I woke up about 10:00 and read for a few hours."

"Lily! You shouldn't be staying up that late! You need rest." Her mother scolded.

Lily grabbed her spoon and began stirring it distractedly in her soup,"I'm-I'm. . .uh. . ." How old was she? She was going to have to take a guess. . .". . .I'm 20 years old, mother! Not a child!"

Normally, Lily was always in a fairly good mood around her parents, never snapping, but she had had a rather bad day today.

For a second, Lily actually thought she had guessed right. . .

Until Potter put a hand on her knee under the table and patted it gentle,"18, Lily."

"Yeah! 18. . .18?. . .Wow." Lily mused to herself, distractingly shaking Potter's hand off her knee. "Three years. . ." She murmured slowly.

She had come three years into the future, that is if she had actually come into the future at all.

In three years, she would be engaged and apparently, 'in love' with James Potter. Not that that would _ever_ happen. She wouldn't let it happen.

"Eat your soup before it gets cold, dear." Her mother called from the sink where she was washing dishes,"Or before your father gets to it."

George instantly grabbed a nearby newspaper and buried himself in it.

Lily, in spite of everything, laughed. Her parents could always make her laugh, even unintentionally.

She looked over at the Marauders. They seemed to be discussing quidditch related topics. Potter casually had an arm on the back of her chair, much to her displeasure.

A question appeared in her mind,"Where's Petunia?"

"Oh, I'm sure she's with Vernon." Her father said behind the newspaper.

"They're on another date? It seems like that's all they do." Lily said with a laugh. No one else laughed.

Even the Marauders looked up from their discussion.

Her father's newspaper went down slightly, showing George's face,"Well, they _are _married, after all, Lily."

Lily's eyes widened. Petunia married Vernon Dursley? When did that happen? Petunia Evans was now Petunia Dursley?

How many more shocks and suprises was she going to get today? Because between herself and. . .well, herself, Lily was tired of them.

Potter and his friends began to have another discussion. A serious discussion. Must be really serious, considering the amount of serious discussions the Marauders have. Maybe they grew up a bit.

Her father went back to his newspaper, glancing around it every once and a while to watch Lily curiously. Her mother also glanced up at her after washing a dish or two.

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The clock on the kitchen wall chimed three times. It was 3:00.

Carol had eventually sat down, after washing the dishes, and the group talked over tea and biscuits.

Lily wasn't having a very pleasant time though. A lot of the stuff they talked about just got her more confused. She was quiet most of the time. There were a few interesting things said though.

"Lily, when do you want to get your dress?" Her mother asked after a long, tiring explanation on how exactly a television worked.

"My dress?" She asked in confusion. When wasn't she confused?

"Yes. Your wedding dress. Surely you haven't forgotten that, too." Carol said with a laugh.

Lily had 'forgotten' about the date of the wedding, where the wedding was, and whether she wanted chocolate or white for their wedding cake, that last one since her mother forgot herself. Except her mother actually forgot, Lily just didn't know.

Potter looked at her with amusement. It seemed he had also noticed her 'forgetfulness'.

Lily tried hard to bite back a 'What are you looking at?'.

"Oh, uh, how about this Tuesday?" She asked.

"Today's Tuesday." Sirius pointed out.

Lily tried to laugh it off and pretend like she just 'forgot' again. "Oh, well, how about. . .tomorrow?" She asked.

Carol nodded,"That's sounds lovely. We'll stop and get something for lunch after."

There were many conversations like that one, with Lily 'forgetting' many facts.

Lily just wanted Potter and his friends to leave so she could go hide out in her bedroom.

Not only was conversations getting irritating, but the glances and smiles Potter would throw her every once and a while were getting unnerving.

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"So. . .do you two plan to have children?" Carol asked after a long silence, other than the chewing of biscuits and the annoying slurps Peter was making as he drank his tea.

Lily and Potter, who were both in the middle of chewing their biscuits when she asked, choked.

George sighed and rolled his eyes,"Carol, at least wait till they don't have food in their mouths to ask unexpected questions." He said, patting Lily on her back as Remus patted Potter' back.

Lily cleared her throat awkwardly while Potter gulped down his cup of tea entirely and asked with a strained voice if there might happen to be anymore tea. Or firewhiskey. He didn't actually say that, since Lily's parents didn't know what it was and besides even if they did, it wouldn't exactly put Potter on their good list. No, Potter didn't actually say that, but he sure looked like he needed some right then.

Lily decided to not say anything. She was fifteen and her mum was asking if she was planning to have children. She was only fifteen!. . .besides, it's _Potter_. Did she know what people had to _do_ to have children?. . .well, of course her mother did, but still. . .she would never _do_ anything with _Potter._ She'd vowed never to. . ._do_ anything with someone until she was married to that someone. And she wasn't going to marry Potter, so that was settled.

Lily could feel Potter' eyes glance at her through the corner of her eye.

He cleared his throat as everyone (excepted Lily, who was avoiding looking at him) stared at him intently, and took Lily's hand in his own.

Lily unwillingly let him. She kept telling herself to act normal. And that was normal she supposed. Potter and her were engaged and supposedly in love. They would want to hold hands and. . .show other signs of affection, she supposed.

"Uh, well, we-you see-Lily-I-we've talked about it and sure. We'd like to have children." Potter said in a still strained voice,"Later. In the future. . .a lot later in the future. Right, Lily?" He added quickly after seeing Carol's gaze on him.

". . .Right. . ."

"That's wonderful! Isn't, George? We'll have grandchildren!" Carol said happily.

George looked up from a rather interesting (to him anyway) article about the weather yesterday (rain and snow),"Oh, of course, dear. Yes, that would be spiffy." Her mother scowled at him and took a sip of tea before starting to tell him off for 'not listening to a word she said' and how 'he never paid attention to her'.

Lily covered up her laughter behind her tea cup. She was laughing despite of everything going on again.

Potter noticed and leaned towards her ear,"What are you laughing about?" He followed her gaze (It was on her father), but must have mistaken it on Sirius, who was sitting on the right side of George, crossing his eyes in a childish way, for the reason for her laughter,"Sirius?" He questioned her with amusement,"He's not that funny, if that's what your laughing about. I can do that." Potter said, obviously trying to show off in front of her. He crossed his eyes too.

Lily had stopped laughing and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked between Potter and Sirius.

They were both crossing their eyes.

Apparently, they really hadn't grown up much.

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The clock now chimed four times. It was 4:00.

Potter stood around 4:05. "Want to go for a walk, Lily? I've got to leave in about 20 minutes." He asked hopefully, holding out his hand.

Lily debated.

She could say she felt faint and didn't think she should walk around.

That would cause her mum to go into a panic fest and say she needed to go to the nearest hospital. Her father would look at her with concern, but say nothing, waiting for her mother to say something utterly panic stricken, then try to reason with her and calm Carol down.

Potter would also get worried and say they should take her to St. Mungo's. His friends would just look at her in concern and not say anything, probably. Remus might suggest something, politely, of course. Sirius might say something stupid and unnecessary.

No, Lily thought, that excuse wasn't worth all the trouble. And she didn't have time to think of another excuse. Lily didn't want to be alone with him. Actually, she didn't want to be around him at _all._ Maybe she could just get up real slowly or ask for another cup of tea to get rid of some time-

"Lily?" Potter asked, hand still out.

Lily stood up, not taking his hand, but still agreeing to walk with him. She began to walk to the back door, where the backyard laid. Leaving Potter a bit miffed at Lily not taking his hand.

"Can I come along too, James?" Sirius called out to him teasingly as he walked out of the kitchen.

James looked over his shoulder with a sarcastic 'ha-ha' look on his face.

---------------------------------------------------------

"Well, James just left us." Sirius stated in a huff.

"Yes, how dare James want to spend time with his fiancee. How dare he." Remus stated dullfully, stirring his tea drearily.

He had been a bit on the touchy side lately, due to the fact that the full moon was coming up.

Carol looked up from her romance novel to Remus,"You sound a bit down, Remus. Did you have a bad ending with someone lately?" She asked sympathetically.

Remus tensed and looked up at Mrs. Evans. "Oh, no, no, no. Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Is there sugar, Mrs. Evans? The sugar bowl's empty." Peter asked, craning his head around the kitchen.

Mrs. Evans wordlessly, without looking away from Remus, opened the cabinet door conveniently located next to her, grabbing a 5 pound bag of sugar and distractedly dropping it into Peter's lap (He sat on her left side).

"Er, thanks." He said, picking up the bag and examining it. Then, after a few seconds of examination, Peter tore open the top slowly and began to pour the sugar into his cup slowly, only for it to get a bit out of hand, sugar pouring into his cup quickly. He gave a small squeal, pulling the bag up rapidly. His cup was filled to the brim with sugar, the tea overflowing onto the table clothe.

Sirius watched him the whole time, chuckling. "Way to go, Pete."

Meanwhile. . .

"So, tell me Remus, do you have a lady friend?" She asked.

Her husbands newspaper lowered slightly, listening to the conversation wearily.

Remus gulped, "Oh, well, no, not-not really-"

"Wonderful! I know a lovely girl just for you! She just started working at the salon I get my hair done at. Her names Karen. She does a lovely job with my bangs. I'm sure you'll like her. I bet she'd love to go out with you someti-"

George decided to save Remus then,"Dear, I don't think Remus is looking for a lady friend right now."

"Well, of course he is, aren't you, Remus?" Carol asked

"Well, no, not-"

"Mrs. Evans, Remus, here," Sirius gave Remus a hard slap on the back,"is _never_ looking for a lady friend. I wouldn't even waste my time on him. But I'm sure my other friend, Peter, here, would _love_ a lady friend, wouldn't you, Peter?" Sirius asked, giving Peter a hard slap on the back this time.

Mrs. Evans' head snapped to Peter instantly, all thoughts on Remus gone. "Oh? Are you Peter?"

George rolled his eyes and sighed, he gave up. Sirius snickered. Remus looked relieved.

Peter looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"What?" He asked quickly. Peter was trying to scoop out the sugar with a spoon into a a napkin. He stopped though, in mid-scoop.

"Oh, Karen. She's a lovely girl. Smart-"

George snorts here,"If that girl's smart, then your biscuits here, are _geniuses."_

Carol glared,"-as I was saying. Karen is. . .well, she might not be a genius, but-well, the important thing is that she's nice. And pretty."

George laughed,"Yeah, go for the lookers, Peter, I did and see what I live with?"

Sirius laughed with him, then noticed no one else was and weakly trailed off.

George also stopped laughing and coughed,"I mean. . .ah, I'll just be going to the bathroom." He said, standing up and kissing his glaring wife on the cheek and began to walk-no, speed jog out of the kitchen, stopping and walking back to the table to grab his newspaper.

Silence.

"Anyways, Peter, I know you'll just adore her-"

--------------------------------------------------------------

Lily sighed and sat down on a bench under one of the trees.

Potter sat down as well. Too close for her liking though.

"We're doing a lot of walking, aren't we?" He asked, grinning down at her.

Lily avoided his gaze and laughed dullfully, she didn't think he noticed. Or at least she hoped he didn't.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that he had stopped grinning and silence fill the air.

Lily knew he was still watching her.

She was use to this. Even back at Hogwarts, Potter would watch her if he was nearby. She wondered what he thought about when he looked at her. Probably something perverted, she guessed.

Lily felt an arm go around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "What's wrong?" Potter asked.

Her eyes widened, talk Lily, talk!

"Nothing." She said quickly, almost too quickly. "Why do you say that?"

Potter tilted his head some, gazing at her eyes,"Well, you seem to be. . .avoiding me or maybe it's my imagination. And the whole fainting thing. . ." He trailed off.

"Oh, I was just tired. It was nothing you said." Lily lied quickly, again almost too quickly.

Potter dropped his arm from her shoulder slowly and looked away from her for once. "Do you not want to get married, Lily? Is that what this is about?" He asked after awhile.

Lily could see James face wasn't happy. Anything but happy, right now.

This was her chance.

This was her chance to call off the wedding. Her chance to get rid of Potter.

She opened her mouth, then closed it. As she watched Potter, she soften some. Yes, even Potter could make her soften a bit. It was hard, but when she saw how awful he looked right now, anyone could have soften.

Maybe he did care for her-some. No, he probably only wanted to marry her because she was-she was. . .well, she couldn't really think of anything really special about her enough to actually marry her for.

Potter looked at the ground blankly,"I knew it." He let out a breath.

Lily bit her lip, she still had time to call off the wedding, three weeks, she had learned that earlier. "No, I want to marry you. . ." Lily couldn't say his first name yet, though. She just couldn't. It would always be Potter to her.

Potter looked sharply over at her,"Your not just kidding me, are you? Because I don't want to get married only to find out you didn't really want to marry me. That would be awkward and depressing. Very depressing, actually." He said, still sounding miserable.

Strange how his mood could change so fast. Just a while ago, he was laughing and having a jolly good time with her parents and his friends.

Lily paused,". . .No, I'm not."

She supposed that convinced him enough, his face visibly relaxed and he-urgh, no! He was hugging her now. She patted his back awkwardly.

Potter sighed in relief,"You know, you had me worried there for a while, Love."

Lily felt kind of bad. Maybe she should have called off the wedding when he asked, get it over with sooner.

They sat like that for awhile, a comfortable silence in the air. Or at least comfortable silence for a Potter. Lily was anything, _but _comfortable.

Potter ran a hand through her long hair slowly,"I love you, Lily. You know that, right?"

Lily froze.

"Oy! Loverboy!" Sirius voice called.

Potter pulled slightly away and looked over his shoulder at Sirius, who was standing just outside the backdoor. "What?"

"We've got to go!" Sirius called back.

Peter appeared behind Sirius and shoved his way through,"Please, James!" He called desperately.

Carol's voice was heard,"Peter, I just called up Karen! She said she'd love to go on a date with you!"

Peter moaned.

Sirius patted him on the back,"Good going, Peter. You have a lady friend now."

Remus seemed to still be in the house.

He soon joined Peter and Sirius outside. . .

"Oh, Remus, I know a daughter of a friend of mine, she's lovely as well. Very smart too-"

Potter chuckled and turned back to Lily, still close. Lily didn't like the look in his eye. It was an impish kind of look. She still couldn't get over what he said. Did he-?

Oh, dear Merlin, he's not going to-

Potter leaned in and kissed her full on the lips. His grip on her waist tightened, pulling her closer to him.

Lily didn't know what to do. She didn't know that much about kissing. Sure she'd been given a couple pecks on the cheek, even a peck on the lips, but she'd never just been _kissed._ Potter seemed to know what to do, as if they had kissed all the time. . .which to Lily's displeasure, they probably had.

The kiss was soon broken as they heard her father's voice just inside the door,"Now, Carol, don't pester Remus about another one of your friends daughter or in fact, another salon girl. Where's Lily and James?"

Potter stood up, grinning widely, he took a dazed Lily's hand and began to drag her back to the house.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Bye, James dear, see you soon!" Lily's mother called.

"Yes, good-bye, James." George called as well.

The Marauders were walking out the front door, ready to apparate.

Lily made sure she was behind her father, so that Potter wouldn't be able to grab her unexpectedly and kiss her again. She had had too many shocks and suprises today.

"Remus, Peter, remember to talk to me soon about Karen and Susan (Carol's friend's daughter)!" She added. Then thought of something apparently,"Sirius, I just had the most wonderful idea! There's a girl at the market that's just lovely-"

"Dear, I think the telephone's ringing." George lied quickly.

"Oh. Well, good bye, you four!" Carol call at last, running to the phone.

Potter walked back up to the door and peeked around George, who realized Lily was behind him and walked back to the kitchen to give James and Lily some privacy.

"I'll see tomorrow, then, Lily, okay?"

Lily stared at him,"Why?" She asked rather bluntly.

"You forgot?" Potter asked.

Lily remained silent.

"Oh, well, we're having dinner with my parents, at 7:00." Potter explained. He looked at her curiously for a moment, probably still wondering about her 'forgetting' dinner tomorrow night. Finally, Potter swooped down and kissed her cheek, threw a wink, and walked off to stand with his friends. "Bye, Lily! Why don't you eat some. . .ah, carrots or something to help your forgetfulness?" Potter asked cluelessly.

"Carrots?" She asked.

"Carrots?" Remus asked.

"Carrots?" Sirius asked.

"What were we talking about again?" Peter asked.

"I just made it up, alright?" Potter explained.

Lily nodded and closed the door, not saying good-bye.

She leaned again the hall wall, thinking.

Maybe what Potter said earlier was right. Maybe she just ate something sour and now she was having delusions or something. Her pumpkin juice _did _taste a bit strange.

Oh, who was she kidding, the pumpkin juice tasted good last night. It wasn't sour or bad. None of her food tasted bad.

All she wanted now was to wake up in her bed at Hogwarts, fifteen again, and most definitely not engaged to James Potter.

. . .Through all of her jumbled thoughts, Lily still couldn't forget what James said while they were hugging on the bench.

_I love you, Lily. _

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**A/N: How was that? I tried to work with the commas more, hope it helped. Do you think George and Carol are good names for Lily's parents? If you think you have a better name for them, do tell. **

**Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Just Another Harry Potter Fan**


	3. Talking Wedding Dresses

**Disclaimer: Okay, this is a disclaimer. How much more do I have to say? I'm DISCLAIMING Harry Potter. I DON'T own anything. Now try saying that 10 times fast. . .or, ah, you know what? Just forget about me being so random and weird, LoL. REVIEW RESPONSES are at my LIVEJOURNAL.**

**Ramblings from the Insanely Happy-Go-Lucky (not to mention random) Author: Okay, I have just all of a sudden gotten this inspiration to type up another chapter for I Do instead of waiting till this weekend. I don't know why, I was just surfing fanfiction (dot) net and what do you know? It just hit me like a baseball does when your not paying attention. . .oh, god! That was SO random. What in the-?. . . -Sighes-. . .Please forgive me. I am feeling very light and happy go lucky for some very unknown reason. Maybe it's the Dr.Pepper (My fav. soda!. . .which I drink entirely too much of. . .) talking. -Shrugs- **

**ANYWAY, moving on. LoL. I've decided to post ten different wedding dress pictures on my LiveJournal here: **

**http/users(dot)livejournal(dot)com/ilovemusic/ - or check my profile for a link to my LiveJournal.**

**Now, I'm not going to choose one from a poll or by everyone voting. I'm just giving you a choice on what dress you like the most. Of course, you don't HAVE to use those pictures to imagine her dress. If you do check the pictures out later, could you tell which one you like best? Personally, I like them all, but I'd just like to see which ones everyone likes best.**

**On a final note, I've never gotten married (obviously, considering I'm fourteen. . .). I've been a flower girl and even a bubble girl (pass out little bubble bottles to people). I've never planned out a wedding. Or looked for a wedding dress. So if I get something wrong about any of the wedding stuff, tell me. Thanks!**

**Here's the next chapter.**

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_Chapter three-Talking Wedding Dresses_

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"So. . .what do you think?"

Lily shuffled in the full-length mirror, frustrated, "I can't see."

"What do you mean?" Carol asked, standing up from the chair she was sitting in, moving behind her daughter.

There was a sigh from Lily,"Mum, I can't even see because of these puffy sleeves, much less breath."

Carol tilted her head to the side,"Now that you mention. . .I can't see your face. . ." She trailed off slowly.

Carol and Lily were out the next day searching for Lily's dream wedding dress.

On the ride to the muggle wedding dress store, _Wedding Dresses for all Occasions_, which Lily couldn't understand what other occasions that you could use wedding dresses for other than. . ._weddings_, Lily had somehow 'forgotten' that she and James decided to have a muggle wedding since a few guests attending would be muggles.

Lily was actually relieved for this. She didn't have a clue how a wizarding wedding ceremony took place. Was it similiar to a muggle wedding? Did you have to do some weird dance, praying to Merlin or something? Was there some kind of binding spell? Would you have to say an oath? Sign a contract? Would you-?

The good thing was that she didn't have to worry about it, since they were having a muggle wedding-no, actually, she didn't have to worry about it at _all_ because James and her were _not_ getting married. No way.

Lily decided to call him James in her mind so she could be prepared to say it outloud, much to her displeasure.

Anyways, the wedding would be muggle _if_ she was actually going through with it. Which she wasn't. There would be a few magical decorations added, nothing too suspious, though, her mother explained to her.

Lily felt kind of bad already. She made a mistake saying she did want to marry James yesterday. If she had only said the simple "no" word, her mother would be going with her to some muggle wedding gown shop, spending a bunch of money on a dress for _her_, when Lily knew it would never be used.

Lily was trying on her third dress. It was long, like most wedding dresses. White, also like most wedding dresses. It just had one feature that made it. . ._unique_ from the rest.

It's sleeves.

It's huge, puffy, suffocating (for Lily anyways) sleeves.

The sleeves from the bottom of her wrist all the way to the shoulder had to be at _least_ 6 inches wide. They covered Lily's neck all the way and had her mouth and nose covered too, her eyes just about joining her nose and mouth.

"It's scratchy, too." Lily pointed out, to show her point she tugged and scratched a little at the sleeves.

This whole wedding gown buying thing seemed so surreal to Lily. She'd dreamed about shopping for a wedding dress-the _perfect_ wedding dress since she was a little girl, and, now, her she was. Already. It happened so quickly. Of course, Lily had somehow skipped three years of her life, but still. Everything these past two days had happened fast. Too fast.

Finding James to be her fiance, not to mention, supposedly, _in love_ with her. Also finding him being a bit more. . .what was the word? Mature? No. He was having a crossing eyes competition with Sirius ( Lily also calls Sirius, Sirius instead of Black now. In her head), trying to, she guessed, impress her. No, he hadn't really _matured_-well, maybe phsyically he did, but not mentally. Lily couldn't put a finger on how James was different. There was something about him though.

Lily pushed the sleeves away from her face, that not really helping since they pushed back into her face a few seconds later.

She gave a tired sigh, finally just holding the sleeves away from her face.

"The rest of the dress is nice, though, isn't it?" Carol commented.

Lily couldn't deny that. If only the rest of the dress wasn't so. . .desperately _puffy_.

"Yes, I suppose so. It's just, I wouldn't make it down the aisle without running into pew or-" Lily hesitated,"-or James. . ." She trailed off. Lily didn't say James' first name very often, at outloud. She was also joking about a wedding that would never happen. Guilt. Why did there have to be guilt in the world? Why?

Carol laughed, patting one of Lily's puffy sleeves, her hand boucing off like it would on a balloon,"Wouldn't that be a disaster?"

Lily forced a chuckle, guilt still with her,"Yeah."

Carol sighed giving one last look at the puffy dress,"Well, I guess the hunt is still on?"

Lily, who was already closing the dressing room door next to the mirror she was standing in just a second ago, laughed,"Yes, I suppose so." Her voice sounded relieved. Probably from getting out of the puffy dress.

"Alright, I'm just going to go browse around a bit." Carol said, walking out the dressing room area.

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"How does it look?" Lily asked quite a while later, coming out of the dressing room, yet again.

Carol gasped and squinted a bit,"Er. . .it's a little. . ._blinding_, don't you think, dear?"

Lily turned to the mirror and also squinted,"Well, maybe. It does have a few sequins on it. . ."

If there were a few sequins on the dress, then Lily's hair was black. Which it obviously wasn't.

The dress was blinding, as Carol said. The lights of the dressing room made it sparkle. Just too much.

"Well, at least you'd have everyone attention." Carol chuckled, referring to the wedding. "I suppose it wouldn't matter though. The bride always has all the attention at her wedding. Whether they have a thousand sequins or a plain, simple dress." Carol finished vaguely, probably remembering back to her wedding.

"Yeah." Lily replied awkwardly. This stupid guilt! It ruined everything.

Her mother smiled, looking at Lily with a raised eyebrow,"You'd also definitely have James' attention. . .but something tells me you wouldn't need a thousand sequins for that either."

Lily looked away and started towards the dressing room,"I'm going to change."

Carol stared after her confused.

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"Oh, Lily!"

"That bad?" Lily asked, peering at herself in the mirror.

"It's _wonderful_!" Carol exclaimed as though Lily never said anything.

Lily had to like it also. It wasn't too puffy. Or scratchy. Or blinding. Or pricy (She tried to find something not too pricy. She wasn't going to even wear it, so what was the point of wasting her parents money over some over priced dress?).

It fit her.

And not just sizewise. The dress just seemed to call to her from it's rack.

_Lily! Lily! Pick meeeeeeeee, Lily! Meeeeeeeeeeee! Pleaseeeeeeee! Pick me, Lily! You know I'm pretty! Yes, you know I'm talking to you! Pick Meeeeeeeeeeeeee! The Pretty Oneeeeeee! Lily-_

"Lily."

_Lily! Pick meeeeee! Please! Look at my price tagggggg! Look at me! I want to get marrrrrrrrried! Lily-_

"Lily?"

_Don't look at all those other dress! They're bimbo's. Always catching someone's attention through puffs and sequins! Pick meeeeee, Lily-_

"_Lily_."

Lily shook her head,"Yes?"

"Do you like the dress?" Carol asked.

She turned back to the mirror, fingering the dress lightly.

_Lily! Pick mmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!-_

"Yes. I pick you." Lily said.

_I knewwwwwwww you'd pick meeeeeeeeee! Lilllllllllllllyyyyyy!-_

"Why are you still making the words longer?" Lily asked to her dress.

Carol quirked an eyebrow,"Were you talking to your. . .dress, Lily?" She asked hesitantly.

"No!" She answered quickly.

_That's what they allllllllllllllllllllll say, Lilllllllllllllllllllllllly! That's what theyyyyyyyyyyy alllllllll say! Heeeeeeeeheeeeeeehhheeeeeeeee!-_

"Is it the one you want? I like. . .and I'm sure James would too!" Carol finished slyly.

Lily's faced burned. How embarrassing. "Yeah, I want this one."

_Seeeeeeeeeee? You don't neeeeeeeeeeeeed those stupid sequins and puffs dresses, do youuuuuuuuuuuuuu?-_

"Stop talking to me!" Lily hissed. "Or I'll go put you back on the rack."

_Noooooooooooo-_

"Lily, who are you talking to?" Carol's voice, once again, hesitant.

"No one!" Lily replied quickly again.

_You know you loooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvveeeeee me! Just like you lllllllllllllloooooooooooove Jammmmmm-_

"Shut _up_!" Lily whispered angry.

What an annoying dress! How in the world did it even know about James? Couldn't it be a little less. . .talkative? _Wait._ Dresses weren't _suppose_ to talk. At _all_.

_That'ssssssssss what youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu think!_

How could she walk down the aisle (that is, if she actually _was_ going to marry James. Which she wasn't) with her stupid, yet beautiful dress talking to her?

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Carol sent another worried look at Lily as they drove home.

"Are you _sure_ your alright?" She asked in concern.

"I'm fine, mum."

"You were talking to your dress, dear."

"I was talking to you."

"So. . .you were going to put me on the rack?" Carol asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Lily said slowly,"Putting someone on the rack means. . .thanking someone for taking them shopping! Yeah!"

_Liar!-_

Lily glared behind her, in the backseat, at the wedding dress.

"Alright. . ." Was all her mother said.

The silence was awful. The car was so quiet now. So quiet that Lily thought not only could the dress (which Lily wasn't sure of) hear her thoughts, but her mother too.

She decided to try out a conversation,"What was dad like when you two got married?"

Carol looked over at her then back to the road, a smile on her lips,"He was charming. Handsome. Smart," She sighed contently."And certainly had more hair than he has today." They laughed. Carol shook her head,"He was wonderful."

Lily smiled. "Is he still?"

"Still what, Lily?"

"Still wonderful. Charming. All that stuff."

"Well, of course he is." Carol said, looking over at Lily again.

"Did you two love each other when you got married?"

Carol looked forward for a while,"Well, of course, we did. We wouldn't have gotten married if we didn't. Now, why are you asking all of these questions?"

"No reason." Lily answered quickly. "So. . .you didn't marry him just because he was handsome or smart or charming?"

She wanted to know. Lily thought it might help her figure out just why James Potter wanted to marry her. And even more important, why in the world _she_ wanted to marry James Potter.

Was it just because of the way she looked? Was it because of her intelligence? Her-

"No. . .we loved each other. . ." Her mother said slowly, then once again looked over at Lily in a concerned way,"Is this about James?"

She didn't answer for a moment. "Yes. . .sort of." Lily said, looking out the window

"Why? What's happened?"

"Nothing. . .I was just wondering why James wants to marry me." She replied awkwardly.

Carol pulled over alongside the road and turned off the car.

They sat in silence for a long while.

Other than Lily's wedding dress talking to her every once and a while.

_Lilllllllllllly! Don't be soooooooo blllllllllllllllllllllind-_

Lily ignored it.

Carol finally broke the silence. "Lily, he _loves_ you. Why else would he marry you?" She asked.

Lily shrugged,"I don't know."

". . .He loves you. He adores you. I can see it whenever you two are together. . .And until now. . .I thought it was mutual. . .what's wrong?" She asked confused.

Lily sighed, fidgeting with her hands,"I don't know."

_Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!-_

Her lips pursed. She was about ready to take the dress back. Whether it was utterly beautiful or not. . .well,she doubted she'd ever be able to take it back. . .

Carol breathed deeply,". . .Do you love him?"

Lily knew she must lie. No matter how guilty she felt. No matter how much she saw James' image appear in her mind. Bringing more and more fresh waves of guilt.

"Yes."

What else was she suppose to say? If she said no, her mother would get suspious. Then one thing would lead to another, and presto! She would have spilled everything about waking up three years older one morning, just out of the blue. They'd definitely take her to a loony bin.

For once, the dress was silent.

Thank _Merlin_.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Carol squeezed Lily's hand reassuringly,"You two have something wonderful, Lily. Something not everyone has." She smiled and put the keys in the ignition.

Lily sighed and forced a smile, wondering what her mother was talking about,"Yeah. . .I. . .I guess I'm just really nervous about the wedding."

"Oh, there's not that much to worry about, dear. You'll be fine."

Carol started the car up and began to drive down the road again, Lily looking out the window, thinking.

What was her mother saying? Was it love she was talking about? Love was about the only thing Lily could think her mother meant. But did James and her actually love each other? Truly?

Urgh, she was so confused.

What about saying she couldn't marry James? She had yet another chance to say she didn't want to marry him. To say she didn't love him. Was it because everytime she tried to say the words, Lily'd see James' face yesterday at the bench, looking so unhappy? Because of the guilt? She thought so.

Also, to add to every other question she had, Lily hated to admit that she actually. . .enjoyed. . .the kiss James gave her at the bench. She could dislike James all she wanted, but his kiss was . .nice. Of course, he's the only boy to ever just _kiss_ her. Maybe it was like that with all boys. Lily hoped so. . .

. . .And the talking dress really wasn't helping much. Not at all, actually.

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Lily bit her nail nervously as she sat at the kitchen table wait for James to arrive. They were having dinner with his parents. All Lily could do was hyperventilate-inside her head, of course.

She maybe she could just fake being sick, but even if she got out of this dinner date, that didn't mean she was safe. James would probably say they'd just meet up when she felt better or something.

The doorbell rang and George opened the door.

"James, good to see you!"

She heard an equally enthusiastic reply from James.

"Lily, James is here!" Her father called from the front door.

Lily breathed deeply, trying to clear her mind a bit.

As she greeted James, remaining carefully out of his reach, her mother joined the group. They chatted for a while (Lily didn't say much), then, they left.

Lily could have swore on her favorite charms book that she heard the faint voice of her wedding dress upstairs. . .

_Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu loooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvveee hiiiiimmm-_

Lily quickly shut the front door.

James walked to a rather secluded bush, out of people's view, beckoning Lily.

Lily slowly walked over to him.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Ready for _what_?" She asked uncertainly. What did he-?

"To apparate."

"Oh!" Lily said, then her heart sunk. "Oh. . ."

She couldn't apparate! She was only fifteen!

. . .How could she make an excuse for this? She forgot how? No. She was feeling unwell? No. Her head hurt? No. Her nose scratched? Lily had already given up by the time she thought of that last excuse.

James had a concentrated look on his face, Lily guessed he was about to apparate. But, when he noticed she wasn't doing anything, the concentrated look disappeared. "Er, Lily?"

"Hmmm?"

"Don't you think it's time to go?"

"Sure."

"Okay. . .well, let's go."

"Um. . ."

James' second concentrated face disappear too. "Yeah?"

"Well, I was thinking. . .maybe we could travel by floo tonight. I'm not really in the mood to apparate." Lily explained nervously.

_Liarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!_

Urgh, the stupid dress was _still_ talking! It was sort of like a conscience. . .a very annoy conscience. . .a very, _very_ annoying conscience. She wish she could take it back now. But why did it have to be so pretty? The puffy sleeved dress was looking pretty good right now. It didn't talk. At least it never did when she tried it on. . .

James raised an eyebrow and replied slowly,"Okay, sure. Whatever you want."

With that, they both walked back to the front door and rang the doorbell.

Lily's mother opened it,"Charlotte, don't you think your a little early for the tupperware party?. . ." Carol trailed off as she realized it wasn't Charlotte, but Lily and James. In her arms were three plastic containers, or tupperware.

Lily rolled her eyes. Her mother had these plastic container party every time she turned around it seemed. They weren't always at their house, but usually they were.

Carol _loved_ to socialize.

Before Carol could get a word out, George had walked up behind her, car keys in hand,"I'll just be going now-Lily! James! What are you two doing back already?"

Lily's father did not care for the tupperware parties, like Lily, unlike Petunia (who also liked to socialize). He'd usually go to the nearest cafe and drink tea and read the newspaper while the parties went on. Which could last for hours. Good thing there was alot of news happening.

"Oh, well, Lily wanted to floo to my parents instead." James explained.

"Oh. Okay, well, bye you two. . .again." George said with a laugh, sliding out of the house, past Lily and James to the car. He drove off.

Carol held the door open, precious tupperware still in her arms. "I was suprised to see you there. Actually, I was expecting Charlotte to be arriving so-"

_Ding, Dong!_

"-There she is!" Carol said, scurrying back to the door.

Lily immediately began to rush off, trying to avoid Charlotte. She never cared much for her mother's friends. Sure, they were nice. It's just. . .they talked so much! She couldn't get a word in edgewise.

She was half way to the livingroom and fireplace, only to see that James wasn't with her.

Lily found no point in rushing off if James was caught by Charlotte, then they'd both be standing there for half an hour talking.

She hurried back and grasped his arm, pulling-dragging him out of the hallway to the livingroom.

"What's the hurry?" James asked, glancing back.

"Tupperware buddy of mums. Four words: Avoid. At. All. Costs." Lily said simply, in front of the fireplace now. She grabbed a small pot and took off it's lid. It was filled with floo powder.

"That bad, eh?" James asked with a laugh.

Lily shrugged, not in the mood to talk. Well, she never really was in the mood to talk with James.

She held the floo container out to James, waiting for him to go first, that way she'd know what his parents address was.

"Oh, no. Ladies first." James said with a mocking bow.

"Oh, no. Prats first." Lily said before she could stop herself. She prayed that they teased each other with names like that. She hoped. She wished, actually. Lily knew she didn't want to have to call him Honeybun or Sweety or some other cheesy name like that.

To Lily's relief, James, apparently, was use to that name,"Prats? I don't see any prats around here." He teased, waving an arm around the room.

Lily could hear her mother's and Charlotte's voice just outside the livingroom. She groaned. "No, please, go ahead."

"You first."

"No, _you_ first."

"You."

"_You_." Lily said tiredly.

"Why do you want me to go first?" James asked with a smirk. Lily never cared for his smirk. Especially, his impish kind of smirks,"So you can watch my bum as I walk gracefully to the fireplace?" He asked slyly, coming closer.

Lily never cared for his comments either. Or the closeness between them.

She shoved the floo powder at him with a roll of her eyes,"Just go. . .please. The tupperware ladies are all starting to arrive. . .and since when were you graceful?"

Which was true. The doorbell had rang three times during their discussion over who would go first.

"Since forever. . .Fine, fine." He said." But you owe me one." James said with a suggestive look on his face. He grabbed a bit of the powder just as the tupperware ladies voice's grew. James handed the floo powder back to Lily. With a wave to Lily (Which Lily tried to give a small smile, so not to suspious), James said in a not so loud voice ( since the tupperware people were just outside the room, Carol carefully blocking the entrance, Lily noticed),"2301 Merlin's Beard Road!"

Lily hurriedly grabbed a hand full of powder, trying her best to remember the address, all the while rushing to the fireplace.

Just as she said the address, her dress called from upstairs,

_Good Byyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeee, Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiilyyyyyyyyyy! Oh, and youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu loooooooooooooveeeeeeeeee himmmmmm!_

She chose to ignore the stupid piece of fabric, since it really didn't know what it was talking about. Pfft.

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"_Oof_!" Lily groaned as she landed on a the floor roughly.

She opened her eyes, coughing a bit from the powder she somehow inhaled on the way.

The floor gave a squeal. . .wait! Floors do _not_ squeal!

It was a house elf.

She landed on a _house elf_.

Lily immediately scrabbled up, apologizing to the startled creature.

"No need to apologize to Tipsy, Miss! Tipsy is fine, Miss!" The house elf Tipsy exclaimed enthusiastically. A bit too enthusiastically after being knocked down by something twice your size.

"Er. . .right." Lily said uncertainly as her attention wander to other things, such as the room around her. It was a nicely decorated warm looking room. Probably the livingroom.

But where was James? Where was _anyone_?

Was she suppose to have dinner with the house elf?

"Hey, Lily." James' calm voice said behind her.

Lily spun around, scared to death,"Merlin. . .James!" She was still a bit hestitant with the whole "James" thing. "You scared me!"

James gave her a sheepish grin,"Sorry. Want me to make it up to you?" He asked after a second.

Lily knew what he was implying, and even though she had enjoyed the kiss he'd given at the bench, she wouldn't even think about actually kissing him _again_.

She back away some,"No thanks, I'm good."

"Suit yourself, I guess." James said, trying hide a disappointed look.

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"So, Lily, have you found a wedding dress yet?" James' mother, Susan asked with a kind smile.

Lily looked up from her plate of broccoli salad and chicken to Susan, James at her left, Harold, James' father, to next to Susan, who was across from her.

She nodded,"Um, yes. Just today, actually. It's beautiful. And it talks." Lily covered her mouth quickly as that last bit slipped casually out of her mouth. Now it really didn't matter if she told them she was actually fifteen-years-old in an eighteen-year-old's. She'd just said that her wedding dress _talks_. Lily might as well get use to the idea of a loony bin.

James and his parents stared at her for moment. Susan and Harold stared at her curiously, while leave it to James to be gapping at her like an idiot, mouth open, broccoli salad in his mouth.

"I mean. . .um, I mean-" Lily stopped and giggled nervously for a moment,"I mean, it just was calling to me when I saw it. You know? It was just _telling_ me to buy it."

_And you didddddddddddd, didn't youuuuuuuuuuu?_

Lily inwardly groaned. Apparently, the dress wouldn't be leaving her head anytime soon.

A few seconds passed before all of the Potter family laughed at the joke. James put an arm around Lily's shoulder and squeezed it, then let go. He shook his head at her, an amused smile on his face.

He had hazel eyes, she noticed. Her's were green. Hazel and Green. Green and Hazel.

After the laughing finally ceased and eating began again, Susan started the wedding dress conversation back up, much to Lily's displeasure. GUILT. "I'm sure it will look wonderful on you." She sighed wistfully,"I've never experienced a muggle wedding ceremony before. Never even seen what a wedding dress looks like."

_Guillllllllllllllty!_

Lily tugged at a lock of her hair,"Well, maybe I could bring it by sometime before the wedding. . ."

"Oh, that would be lovely, Lily!" Susan said witha smile.

Lil suppose she should drop by with the wedding dress sometime, since they weren't going to actually get married. Susan had never seen a muggle wedding dress, so Lily might as well show her.

"So, Lily, what is the function of a taster." Harold asked in wonder, changing the topic.

Lily's eyebrows furrowed as Susan and James also looked her way. . . Maybe it was just her imagination, but it sure seemed like James had been looking her way through most of dinner. . .

_He sureeeeeee wasssssssssss!_

Thanks, Wedding Dress.

_Your Welllllllllllllllcome!_

Lily shook her head,"Well, uh. . .you see-. . .a taster, you say?" She asked confused.

"Yes, I think you put bread in it-"

"Oh! You mean a _toaster_!" Lily said, now understanding what he was talking about.

"Ah, yes. _That's_ what I meant. I could have swore the muggle man selling those, er, toasters, you say? Yes. Those toasters were called tasters." Harold muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

"Well, you see-. . ."

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Lily liked Harold and Susan.

They were nice, intelligent, and funny. They made her feel welcome. Even in the situation she was going through.

They had just finished chatting in the living room after eating dinner when James asked Lily excitedly if she wanted to see his new broomstick.

Lily had snorted inwardly. Only James Harold (She had learned that after Susan said his full name at the table) Potter would still be giddy like a school boy over a broomstick.

Lily would rather have not, but what else could she say?

He lead her up a flight of stairs and to a rather long hallway, quite a few doors leading to rooms.

James stopped at one that was plain, just like the other doors.

Lily had a feeling she wouldn't like where they were going. She had a feelng she knew where they wre going. And it made her even more uncomfortable than she was.

She was correct.

It was his bedroom.

As she stood in the door, Lily noticed the room was just as she imagined it would be like: Messy and filled with pictures of quidditch. There were some with his friends, she noticed also, but mostly quidditch pictures.

Lily also notice some pictures of her and James together. They looked happy.

She warily stood still in the doorway, watching James walk to a trunk at the end of his bed, open it and pull out his new broom.

He looked like a child in Honeyduke's.

James stood with it proudly, rambling on about some nonsense Lily couldn't understand for a few moments till he noticed she was just standing in the doorway, looking awkward and uncomfortable.

He walked towards her, broom still in hand (of course). "Alright there, Lily?"

That sentence reminded her of the countless times he had said that to her at Hogwarts, of course, it was "Evans" instead, but there was always that "Alright there" or something close to it.

"Oh, yeah. Great." She said with forced enthusiasm. "Why's your broom in you room?" Lily wanted to change the subject, but also she wass just curious. She had also learned that there was a small quidditch pitch behind the house, with a shed. That seemed like the place for a broomstick.

James laughed and examined the broom closely,"Well, Sirius' broom broke a while ago, so he just thought it would be okay to break in and take mine for joy rides every once and a while. So, I keep it up here now. This is a brand new broom, cost me a fortune, and there's no way I'm letting anyone use it-excluding you, of course." He said, nudging her in the arm.

Lily ignored the comment, although, her face was pink some,"He's your best friend though."

"Yeah, but Sirius is known to be a bit of a walking disaster, you know that. Even if he is my best friend."

Lily nodded and looked away, out his window on the opposite side of the room.

The silence was becoming increasingly annoying to Lily, just like the beautiful wedding dress was.

_This isssssssssssss awkward,ehhhhhhhhhh?_

Lily's heart stopped as James' hand lightly moved down her arm, closing around her own hand. "What are you thinking about?"

If only he knew.

"Oh, nothing." Lily said instead.

"Ask me what I'm thinking about." James said. Lily noticed he was pulling her slightly more into his room with his hand. She panicked. He wouldn't, would he? No. Even he tried, she wouldn't let him fiance or not.

"What are you thinking about?" Lily asked warily.

"You."

Lily didn't know what to do. Her brain wasn't working. Her mind was already jam-packed with confusion, panic, and nervousness. It was in overdrive.

That might be why she did what she did next.

She giggled.

Like some-some stupid bimbo or something. Lily occasionally, when she was nervous, would giggle. It was a habit of hers.

But now, now she was more than just nervous. She couldn't stop giggling.

James looked at her with an amused, yet wondering expression,"What's so funny?"

"I don't know." Lily said between giggles. "I can't help it."

"Are you nervous?"

How did he know?

Lily, even though she couldn't stop giggling, was shocked. How _did_ he know?

"How-what-how did you know?" Lily couldn't believe she just admitted to being nervous.

"You told me, remember? Besides, I've seen you giggle that pretty little head of yours off right when something nerveracking happens. Like at graduation. I didn't know if you would be able to make your head girl speech with all the giggling you were doing before hand." James was chuckling now.

Lily could only stare (right above James head, she couldn't look him in the eye for some reason). _She_ would be _Head Girl_? Woah.

Maybe this whole waking up older thing was a good thing after all. She just found out she would be _Head Girl_!

Lily was also suprised James knew such personal information about her. Only her mum and dad knew about her giggling habit.

Were they really that close?

Was she suppose to know some secret trait about him?

Lily knew that when he was nervous or tried to impress someone, he'd run a hand through his hair, but everyone knew that. It was kind of obvious.

Lily's giggling had stopped since her mind was processing the information just given to her.

That is, until James put an arm around her waist, pulling her against him.

She giggling like mad then.

James looked at her funnily,"What are you nervous about?"

Lily tried to control her giggling,"Well, ah. . ." She looked towards a poster of a quidditch player in red and green robes flew around. He winked and waved at her. ". . .Uh, one of those quidditch player just winked at me. . .and it was funny. . .and I'm not nervous. Who said anything about being nervous?" She asked nervously.

"You did."

"I did what?" Lily asked in confusion, once more giggling.

"You said you were nervous." James explained, giving the poster that Lily pointed at a dirty look.

_Jeallllllllllllllllllous!_

There was that dress again.

Lily thought that was weird. James was jealous of a poster. Ha.

She finally was able to get her giggling under control, although, she wasn't any less nervous.

Lily wasn't sure why she was nervous. Well, the reason was kind of obvious, actually.

She was standing in the middle of a boys' bedroom, a boys' arm around her waist, lights off, and no adults around anywhere. . .

But it was James Potter.

. . .But he was just as much a boy as any other boy out there.

. . .But he was annoying and a jerk.

James lowered his head towards Lily's lips, dropping them lightly against hers.

Lily froze for a second, not moving. What was she to do now?

James pulled back and stared at her. He realized she was not kissing back. He was getting suspicous. She knew he was.

The only thing to do was to kiss him back. . .it was the only way, Lily decided.

Besides, she _did_ enjoy the last kiss a bit.

He hesitantly lowered his lips to hers again. Lily, after a few seconds, kissed back. Her face was flustered, it had been for quite some time.

The kiss ended with a _Bang_! as James' new broomstick fell to the floor, his grip had lessened during the kiss, forgetting about it.

They immediately jerk away and looked around startled, till James realized he dropped the broom.

He scrambled to grab to it from the floor as Lily stood in a daze.

She hated herself for actually liking the kiss of that arrogant git.

James examined his broom carefully,"Oh, Merlin, I hope that doesn't leave a dent or anything."

Lily rolled her eyes.

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**Author's Note: Well, there's the next chapter. What do you think? Don't forget to check out the wedding dress pic's! **

**http/users(dot)livejournal(dot)com/ilovemusic/ or simply go to my profile and there will be a link for my LiveJournal there.**

**REVIEW RESPONSES are at my LIVEJOURNAL also. **


	4. Carol's Friends

**Disclaimer: I am disclaiming everything. Please don't sue me. Thanks!**

**A/N: Hello! The REVIEW RESPONSES will be posted TOMORROW MORNING on my LIVEJOURNAL. I'm too tired to do them tonight, sorry!**

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_Chapter Four-Carol's Friends and Hug Misunderstandings_

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Lily fingered her necklace dully while her mother chatted with one of her recipe friends next to her in the living room.

Carol had many, _many_ friends.

She had tupperware friends (we've already found out what they talk and swap about), recipe friends (they'd talk and swap recipes at parties every so often), salon friends (they'd talk and swap hair tips (not to mention gossip) at their hair appointments), grocery store friends (they'd talk and swap gossip about the best prices for apples or the best toilet bowl cleaner (among other things)).

Along with those friends Carol also had neighborhood friends (which were sometimes grocery store friends, recipe friends, tupperware friends, or salon friends), then there was family friends, George's friends' wife's friends, some of Lily's friends from the magical world friends, Petunia's friends friends, cafe down the street friends, clothes department store friends, etc.

Petunia also had a similar list.

It was Saturday afternoon in the Evans household. Her friend Claire had dropped by rather abruptly and had been chatting for an hour now. Lily and George were quite bored and becoming restless.

They were all sitting in the living room with tea. Lily had had a magazine in her hand for about 15 minutes but couldn't concentrate with Claire asking her about her wedding every five seconds. She then, instead, found interest in her gold necklace she found lying on her dresser last night.

Lily decided to block out her mother's friend and think about something interesting. . .hmmm. . .what could she think of? What was interesting?. . .Or at least that could keep her mind from Claire? The bridal magazine her mother insisted on buying that morning at the grocery store (They'd run out of sugar and flour, by the way. When Peter dumped half the sugar bag in his tea cup the other day, he dumped the rest on the floor, it seemed).

It had a picture of a bride standing in front of a tree with a bouquet of flowers on the front cover. She seemed to be scowling at the camera. When Lily commented on this to her mother she said that the bride was posing for the camera, to make it more professional or something (Lily wasn't paying that much attention, her mind seemed to wander a lot these days. . .).

Lily wondered why the bride wasn't smiling. She thought it was odd that she would scowl and frown on her wedding day. Did something go wrong? Did the wedding dress rip in the back (she only saw the front)? Did the groom run off in fear of commitment? Did the cake get mixed up at the caterer, saying, instead 'Congrats on Your Retirement' (Lily once had a birthday cake from a nearby cake store that accidently read 'Best Wishes to the New Manager of Dairy-Mart')?

Or maybe that was just her way of smiling. . .

"Oh, you add _two_ teaspoons of sugar to your cookies? I only add one." Carol said to Claire,her recipe friend, who was sometimes her salon friend, cafe down the street friend, and occasionally her clothes department store friend. Claire was never her grocery store friend because she shopped at some other "way over priced" (in Carol's opinion) grocery store.

"Oh, good Heavens, yes! It gives it more flavor, you know." Claire responded, laughing loudly.

The Evans family winced furtively at her laughter. It was quite-well, quite _annoying_.

Claire was also Carol's competive friend. They were always comparing their family, daughters, husbands, foods (half and half milk to two percent milk), hair products (_Hersha's Gray Reducer_ to _Get Rid of Gray's FOREVER!_), clothes, etc.

"Well, I'll have to try adding an extra teaspoon sometime-. . ."

Lily sighed, thinking about James and his friends now.

_Thinking about James, eh?_

She rolled her eyes in annoyance. The bloody wedding dress! "Stuff it." Lily whispered to herself.

"-and then you roll the dough into-What was that, Lily?" Claire asked curiously.

"Oh, er, nothing." She replied awkwardly.

The adults watched her for a moment before going back to sugar cookie tips (George went back to his newspaper article about a new cafe opening a bit from their house)

It seemed while Carol and Claire were discussing cookies, George had found himself another shelter during tupperware parties.

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"James' little friends haven't been by today, have they, Lily?" Carol asked.

Lily turned a page in her book at the kitchen table,"No, why?"

"Oh. . .no reason." She responded innocently. Claire had left a while ago and the Evans family had just finished lunch. They were all in the kitchen.

"Don't even think of trying to set those boys up with one of your blonde bimbo's, Carol." George interrupted without looking up from his crossword puzzle.

Carol sent a chilly glare at George,"For your information," She paused for a moment,"they're not _all_ blonde."

"Oh, well, excuse me. Don't even think of trying to set those boys up with one of your blonde, black, brunette, red, etc. haircolored bimbo's."

"And also, I was not trying to set them up. . .I was just going to mention that I know some lovely girls at the cafe-"

_Ding! Dong!_

Lily got up hastily and opened the front door.

"What are you doing here?" Was her first words.

James raised an eyebrow in amusement."Something wrong?"

Lily shook her head,"Oh, no. I just didn't expect to see you today." And she didn't. Honestly, he came over everyday. Didn't he have a job? Or another social habitat he could hang out at? Sure he was her fiance and they were getting married in less than three weeks (Or so everyone thought, Lily knew better), but still. She really couldn't see him this much.

_Did_ he have a job? She suspected he didn't. If he did, it was never mentioned. If _she_ had a job, it was never mentioned.

"I'm Mr.Unpredictable, what can I say?"

"Your Mr.Potter, not Mr.Unpredictable."

"You'll be Mrs.Unpredictable with me." James went on, ignoring her.

"Mrs.Potter." If she was actually marrying him, which she wasn't.

"Mrs.Unpredictable. Good name, yeah?"

"Terrible."

"What would you prefer?"

"One that wasn't weird." Or Potter. Either way's fine.

"What about Predictable?"

"Still weird."

"Samson."

"Where do you come with _Samson_?" Lily asked in exasperation, letting him in through the door.

"Williams, then." James said, as Lily closed the front door and began back to the kitchen.

"Boring."

"Chambers?"

"Yawn."

"Beverly?"

"That's a first name, not a last." Lily stated sitting down at the kitchen table, James across from her.

"It can be a last name too. My name could be a last name."

"Beverly doesn't sound very last nameish to me."

"Sure it does. Hello, Mr. Evans. Mrs. Evans."

"Hi, James dear." Mrs. Evans said sitting down as well, Scowling Bride magazine clutched tightly in her hand.

"Hello, James." Mr. Evans said cheerfully look up from his crossword then back down again.

"No, it doesn't." Lily said, temper starting to rise. How her temper could rise from such a stupid, pointless argument (a banter to James and her parents), she didn't know. Maybe it was because of the person she was arguing with. Although, she had to admit, it was rather. . .funny what they were arguing about.

"Sure it does. Oh, Mrs. Evans, Sirius was wondering if you would be making any cookies for the wedding-"

"Well, of _course_, I will. As well as the wedding cake, punch, vegetable tray, celery sticks with peanut butter or cheese in them, meatballs, and everything else in the wedding." She sighed. "So much to do."

Lily gave up on the arguement. It looked like the only reply she'd get out of James was "Sure it does".

There was a pause.

"James dear, you wouldn't happen to know if Remus or Sirius or even Peter were looking for lady friends for the wedding, do you?" Carol asked , pouring some tea.

George rolled his eyes and Lily could have swore she saw a smirk run along his face for moment.

James grinned and caught Lily's eye,"Oh, I don't really know. I'll ask the next time I see them."

"Good, good." Carol replied.

There was silence once again.

Lily didn't know why, but the silence seemed a bit. . .a bit tense.

"So. . ." She trailed off.

_Ring, Ring!_

"I'll get it!" Carol exclaimed instantly, jumping up and running to the phone in the front hall in a flash.

Since Carol loved to socialize, talking on the phone was one of her most important rituals during the day. Let's just say the Evans' had a very high phone bill (and not because of their teenage daughter, like most would think, if they didn't know Carol).

Of course, Lily was a witch, therefore, she rarely ever used the phone, have hardly anyone to contact. Petunia, on the other hand, was actually one of the reasons the Evans' had high phone bills when she lived there. Petunia competed very well with her mother.

James looked a bit startled at Carol's outburst, unlike Lily and her father, who had, had quite a few years experience with her outbursts. Also, he wasn't quite used to a telephone or it's sudden ringing noises, being a pureblood and hardly every being around telephones or any kind of muggle contraptions actually.

James sat back in his chair while tapping a finger on the table slowly, looking at a (muggle) photograph of Lily's aunt and uncle.

George remained the same as he almost always was (and rarely wasn't): Calm, cool, and collected (while reading the newspaper).

Lily sat with her hands in her lap, sipping or stirring her tea every once and a while. Her book was abandoned a few seconds after Carol left; Lily felt she'd never be able to concentrate on a book with Carol springing up every five seconds or trying to ignore James' glances towards her (honestly, couldn't he look somewhere else?).

_Why wouldn't he look at you? He loves you, doesn't he?_

Bloody dress. It doesn't know what it's talking about. She was going to just ignore it now. Yes, that would do well. Just ignore it.

Or maybe she could get some scissors and find it's mouth (if it had one, which was doubtful in Lily's mind) and cut it off. . .Maybe it was a _bit_ much (not to mention the dress would be ruined). Also, not to mention, she would be a lunatic to do such a thing.

James was startled again as Carol's voice called into the kitchen,"Lily, your aunt Georgiana (the aunt James was looking at in the photograph) wants to know if there's anything she needs to help with at the engagement party. Can you think of anything?"

Lily, in the middle of putting the tea cup to her lips, about dropped the cup in suprise.

A _what_ party?

Did she say an _engagement_ party?

No-bloody-way.

Lily could already picture the disaster now. She'd slip up and everyone would find out she wasn't really her 18-year-old self, but instead her 15-year-old self. And then-then. . .then she couldn't even _imagine_ what would happen next. She shuddered.

While she was shuddering and predicting what a disaster a engagement party would be, Lily did not realize how long she had spent pondering it all.

"Lily?" Carol called again for the third time, struggling to pull a too short, non-cordless phone to look at Lily from the front hall. The receiver landed on the floor. "Oh, my!" She said picking up the reciever, phone still to her ear,"Just a second, Georgiana."

Lily sat up, startled. She looked around realizing that not only was James looking at her, but also her parents. "Urgm-ahem, I mean, no. There's, er, nothing I can think-think of."

Carol nodded and turned her attention back to the phone, speaking 50 miles per hour.

Lily sighed inwardly as a few moments went by. Her father also went back to what he was doing (surpise! Reading the newspaper). James, to her suprise, actually turned his eyes to something other than her (the window).

She, herself, went back to her book; only reading five pages by the time Carol finished her phone conversation. And let's just say that, that wasn't much considering how long Carol can talk and also considering her love for socializing.

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When the clock in the living room chimed three o'clock, James stood up from the sofa.

They had moved from the kitchen to the backyard, to the front porch, to the living room. There had been several phone calls, including one from Petunia saying that she would come to the wedding (after much persuading from her mother, it seemed. Petunia didn't even talk to Lily on the phone, only Carol and a few greeting words to her father).

There had also been calls from the wedding photographer (muggle), one from the florist, the church (where the wedding would take place, obviously), and two wrong numbers, one trying to order a cheese pizza and one asking for "Betty Wright". Carol, who, (surpise, suprise), answered the phone, promptly said that they did not make pizza and that she did not know a "Betty Wright"-she knew a "Florence Wright", but not a "Betty Wright".

Then she promptly complained to anyone who was listening (no one) that they needed their number changed because that was the fifth pizza call they'd gotten that month. Their number was very similiar to the pizza place down the street.

"You ready?" He asked Lily.

Lily looked at him in bewilderment. Ready for _what_?

What else did she not know about? Was the engagement party _today_? What was going on?

"Ready for _what_?" She asked bluntly.

"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?" He answered back.

That didn't tell her much.

Lily looked towards her parents for some sort of explanation, only to find a hidden smile from Carol and a knowing wink from George.

She stood slowly. "Where are we going?"

"Bye, Mr.Evans, Mrs.Evans. We'll be back soon." James said cheerfully.

Lily was getting frustrated. She didn't like this whole Ignore-Lily thing. It was getting annoying. "_Where are we going_?"

"Lily, we'll have to apparate. Come on."

"Come _where_?" Lily asked, ignoring James' comment on apparating. She had paled considerablely. Learning to apparate in less than one minute would be a miracle. A miracle for anyone. She had about as much chance at learning it then and there as her mother did at not talking on the telephone at all for a day. "And how exactly can I apparate when I have no idea where I'm apparating to?" She asked.

James ignored her again and did something very unexpected, right there, in the middle of her living room, in front of her parents.

He _hugged_ her.

Yes, he strode up to her and put his arms around her waist and _hugged_ her. She didn't understand. Was he trying to tell her something? Or was this just another random act of James Potter-excuse her, James Unpredictable?

Lily stepped away from him as calmly as possible, not to be suspiscious and sputtered,"What are you-? What are you _doing_?"

He shrugged,"You had a point. How can you apparate when you have no idea where or what it is."

"So you _hug_ me, to. . .comfort me about not knowing where we're going?" Lily asked cluelessly.

During the hugging fest and sputtering fest, Carol and George sat on the couch at the sidelines, looking from one to the other.

James looked at Lily strangely,"No. . ." He trailed off slowly,"You were going to apparate along side me. When I apparated."

Lily stared for half a second, mouth open,"Oh." She said, understanding now. She'd read about apparation in her spare time.

Well, she really didn't have much spare time this year with O.W.L's, avoiding James Potter, prefects' duties, avoiding James Potter asking her out, homework, avoiding James Potter at Hogsmeade, tutoring, avoiding James Potter in the halls, Gryffindor quidditch matches, avoiding James Potter at the quidditch matches, eating, avoiding James Potter in class (rather hard), sleeping, avoiding James Potter at meals, club meetings, avoiding James Potter at club meetings, breathing, avoiding James Potter at all costs. . .

James Potter took up alot of Lily Evans scedule, believe it or not.

James meant to have her apparate along side him, not hug her. How embarressing! She turned red. "Right. Sorry. Had a temporary memory lose. You know, when your mind just goes completely blank? It happens to me _all_ the time. Does it to you? It's not like I didn't know that you meant to have me apparate along side of you or anything. I just-just temporary forgot. No reason to get suspicious. . ." Lily trailed off suddenly. She realized James and her parents would get more suspicious with her babbling on and on about not getting supiscious, than accusing James of trying to hug her.

Lily did something that she'd never, _ever_ do voluntarily.

She stepped forward hastily and put her arms around James' stomach.

Lily knew she'd never, _ever_ do that _hastily_ either.

James stood still, Lily could tell he was looking down at her, she could feel his grin.

"Bye, Mum. Bye, Dad." She said in a small voice, not at all like her own. Her face was burning with embarressment.

She, _Lily Evans_, was hugging _James Potter_!

Well, techinically, she was apparating alongside James Potter, but from an unknowing stranger, she was hugging him.

"Bye, Lily. Be back for dinner! We need to discuss the flowers arrangements at the church!" Carol called.

Lily, even though she was humiliated beyond belief, rolled her eyes at her mother's comment. She was going to have fun at dinner tonight. Yes, very much fun. . .

"Bye, Pumpkin. See you at dinner." That was a much better farewell from her father.

James put an arm around Lily's waist and before she knew it everything was black. She was no longer in her living room. It was pitch black. And before she could even get use to this strange situation, she suddenly felt everything pressing in on her. Lily couldn't breathe. Her lungs were shutting up, they were being pressed in. She sqeezed her eyes closed tightly-

"Ah, here we are."

And just as suddenly as the pitch black sensation came over her, it was gone. Lily still felt slightly that she was being compacted into a tiny space, but not as much. She didn't much like apparation anymore. Before, apparation seemed like the perfect trasportation. It was quick and fast. No broomsticks to grip onto for hours on end. But now, broomsticks were beginning to become her friends very nicely.

She shook her head and opened her eyes. The sun was starting to set she noticed. It was quiet. They were standing in front of a house. A moderately large house at that. It was white with dark blue shudders. The front door was dark blue too. It was two stories.

Other than the house, there wasn't much. Lots of trees and grass. Bushes and flowers too. Not much. She could see about half a dozen houses off at distance.

"Look familiar?" James asked, walking up to the house and peering into a window.

Lily would have liked to truthfully have said no, not at all. But that would have been the wrong answer. . .or would it? _Had_ she ever seen or heard of this place? Was it _suppose_ to be familiar? She didn't know what to say. Lily decided to just not say anything and wait for James to say something. She walked up to a bench that just so happened to be waiting for her in front of one of the windows.

"Just after graduation? Remember? We were looking for a house and you saw this one and wanted it. But it had just been sold." James started.

They were already lookng for a house just after graduation? From Hogwarts?

They was so-so _young_. Of course, they were only eighteen now. It was August now; graduation was a little over a month ago. Lily didn't see what the rush was for; they had their whole life ahead of them! She'd heard James and his friends talk about Voldermort some and what a threat he and his Death Eaters were, but that couldn't be why they were rushing to get married, could it?

She had vaguely heard about Voldermort during the year (5th year at Hogwarts, that is). He wasn't much talked about then, apparently though, he had become much more lately.

Lily decided to answer safe,"Sure."

_Saaaaaaaaaaafffffeee annnnnnnnnswwer!_

Oh, great. The dress was with her. Wonderful.

"Well," James said, grinning widely now, walking over to Lily and sitting down,"it was up for sale again."

"And?"

"And. . .and it's not for sale anymore." James said quickly.

"Oh?" Lily thought the short, quick replies were best.

"Yeah, someone bought it just yesterday. We know them." He continued standing up.

"We do? Who?"

James pulled out a key and walked to the front door."Us." He grinned at her and put the key in the key hole and slowly turned it. The door creaked open.

Now, it seemed, from what Lily had heard, that she had fallen in love or at least really liked this house before. Lily needed to have a very enthusiastic reply this time, no short quick ones.

"Oh, James! That's wonderful! I can't believe you'd do this! Thank you!" She said standing up and walking to the door and standing with James at the entrance.

"Well, I had to give you _something_ as a wedding present, so what's better a present than a _house_?" He asked. "I knew you loved this place when we first came by, anyway." James said glancing furtively at Lily for a moment, then leaning back to a window on the second story.

Lily smiled widely and walked through the threshold. She _did_ love this place. It was pretty outside and even prettier inside. Of course, it was empty inside, but it was still nice. It was strange to say it was pretty inside a house when there was nothing but the bare floor and walls, but somehow, Lily thought it was.

There was a doorway to a room that could probably be a large living room to her left. Another doorway to her right that had a counter, she presumed it was a kitchen. A door next to the kitchen. She later found it to be a coat closet. Then there was a staircase opposite the front door.

Lily began to climb up the stairs, James left standing in the kitchen. To her left, it was a dead end, just a wall. To her right, there was long hall with four doors. The first was a large room with a closet and bathroom, she presumed it was a bedroom. The next door was similiar to the first. The third room was small and didn't have a closet or bathroom, she supposed it could be used for whatever they wanted it for.

The last was also a bedroom. There was a window in it. Of course, every room in the house had windows, but this one was very large, Lily walked to it. It had a good view of the land around them for miles. She could see many more houses from this view, then from down in the yard.

Lily sighed. The house was wonderful. There was just the problem with guilt that came washing over her as soon as she stepped in the house.

James had bought a house, a _house_, mind you, for her. Why? Because he loved her?. . .It was becoming more believable, she supposed.

How could she tell him the engagement was over now? Why, oh why, didn't she just do that when he asked the first day she woke up eighteen?

Maybe she should just marry him anyways. Because he did all this for her. Because he bought a house for her. Because she didn't want to hurt him or make him live a lonely life in an empty house he bought for his fiancee. Because his parents were nice. Because her mother bought her a wedding dress. Because she promised Mrs.Potter she'd see a muggle wedding dress and ceremony soon. Because James' kisses were nice. Because the wedding was in two weeks. Because all the invitations were sent out and guests were probably buying or probably already bought a wedding present. Because he held her and said he loved her as if he meant.

But not because she loved him. No. . .

She had only loved three people in her life, _truly_. Her parents and her sister (even if it seemed that Petunia didn't love her). They were the only ones she ever said "I love you" to.

She didn't love James. And never could. So, she couldn't marry him. Not even if he bought her 20,000 mansions or gave her a million nice kisses. Lily couldn't marry someone she did not love. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

She wished this was all a nightmare she could wake up from soon.

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**A/N: There it is. It got a bit more serious there at the end, don't you think? I kind of liked the ending.**

**I got the description of the apparation part from the Half-Blood Prince, if anyone noticed the familiarity. The wedding dress is back in this chappie too! And it will be here for the rest of the story, I'm sure.**

**If anyone's wondering about the where the house is, it isn't at Godric's Hollow. I liked to keep to the facts in my fic's as much as possible, so I did a little research on Mugglenet (great HP website, by the way!). It said that James and Lily moved to Godric's Hollow in 1981, with Harry, to hide from Voldermort. So, I think they didn't actually live there when they got married. I repeat, the house is NOT in Godric's Hollow. For now, the place where they will live is going to remain nameless. **

**Once again, the REVIEW RESPONSES will be posted TOMORROW MORNING on my LIVEJOURNAL.**

**Toodles!**

**Just Another Harry Potter Fan**


	5. Attack of the Rocks

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Author's Note: Okay, a few things to say in this note. First off, Peter is not a death eater yet. In the books, I'm pretty sure that Sirius had said that Peter became a spy at least a year before James and Lily were murdered, and they were married about three years, I think. I might be wrong, if I am and you know the correct info., could you tell me? Thanks!**

**Most of you, I'm sure, already know this, but a waiter is a man and a waitress is a woman. Also, a fiancee is a woman and a fiance is a man. As I already said, most of you probably already know this, but there's a part in this chapter that has the words "waitress" and "waiter" and I didn't want you to get confused or anything.**

**Last of all, I don't know what Peter is. I mean, I don't know if he's muggle-born, half-blood, or pure-blood. Unless I can find any info. on that, he's going to be pure-blood in this fic. **

**REVIEW RESPONSES-LIVEJOURNAL**

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_Chapter Five-The Attack of the Rocks_

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"How about these, Remus?"

"Er. . .they're both. . .nice?" Remus answered in more a questionable form finding that both flowers were purple, had yellow spots, and long stems.They looked the same.

It was Wednesday afternoon, a week and four days till the wedding, Lily and Carol decided to go to the florist shop and find the flowers Lily wanted for the wedding and for the reception. It was more Carol deciding they'd go to the shop that day, seeing as Lily really wanted nothing to do with the wedding planning, much less the wedding. She felt worse about letting this charade go on as the hours went by.

Of course, Carol insisted that Lily owl James and his friends to invite them on their visit to the florist. And of course, James and his friends (his friends reluctantly) agreed. Remus, Sirius, and Peter were just worried they enter the florist single and walk out with a date Carol set them up with.

George had somehow managed to find a way out of this shopping trip, only saying that the Evans family better not be bankrupted by the time they had finished shopping.

Remus mumbled another "They're both nice" statement to Lily's mother before hurridly walking over to Peter, who had just dropped a bouquet of tulips. Remus helped pick them up, sending glances around watching for any wandering-nearby clerks, ready to send them out of the flower shop for dropping their tulip bouquets.

Peter sneezed as the last of the tulips were put back in their rightful place."I think I'm a-a-a-allergic to someth-th-th-_achoo_!" He finished sneezing again, right on a nearby patch of daisies.

Remus steered Peter clear of the flowers and stood with him in the only location that wasn't in a five feet range of any living (or, for that matter, wax or plastic) flowers: The sidewalk outside of the shop. Peter sneezed again. On Remus (and on a passing elderly woman). Remus wondered how exactly James got him to agree to coming here today. He didn't think he'd ever agree to anything like this. Yet, James always had a persuasive side to him. If he didn't, Lily Evans probably wouldn't be his fiancee today.

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"Lily, what do you think of these? You said you wanted to have a tradition white theme for the wedding." Carol asked, holding up white lilies and, er, white lilies.

"Mum, they're the same." Lily stated slowly, putting down the white roses she was holding. Lily did like her older self's taste in color. White seemed like a good color for the wedding (that would never happen).

"Oh, no, dear. See, these," Carol said holding the lilies in her left hand out for Lily to look at closer,"have beige colored spots at their tips." She held the others out,"These don't, Lily."

Lily stood for a moment,"Mum," She said slowly,"Those aren't beige colored spots at their tips. The pedals are dying."

Carol also stood for a moment, sizing up what Lily just told her. Her mouth was open slightly as she peered at the flowers tips, then at Lily. "Hmmm, maybe I need a stronger prescription for my glasses. . ." she trailed off.

Lily began to nod slowly, an eyebrow raised. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, a hand took hers. James. She tried to ignore his hand in hers. And she tried to ignore his gaze. On her. He was _always_ looking at her. Lily wished he wouldn't. It gave her an. . .uncomfortable feeling.

"Those are nice flowers." He said nodding towards the dying flowers in Mrs. Evans' hands.

Lily looked up at him, an exasperated look on her face. Men were so unobservant sometimes."They're _dying_, James." She said pointing at the pedals.

"Oh, well. . .er, hey, is that, Remus and Peter?" James asked looking around awkwardly, obviously feeling overwhelmed by all of the flowers in the shop. Lily had to pity him. Why in the world would he actually agree to helping them shop for flowers? Sure it was their wedding, but honestly. He (along with his friends) really didn't know one flower from the next.

Peter had lasted only fifteen minutes in the shop before he began to drop vases (breakable) and bouquets.

Sirius lasted half an hour before say he was going to "find a restroom" and left. "Find a restroom" for Lily, translated to "I'm heading out to the muggle cafe across the street from here for about an hour or so, these flowers and vases are making me claustrophobic". Her translation was so detailed because she had seen him walk across the street herself and sit down (rather anxiously; muggle places made him anxious she guessed). Lily had watched him drink down four cups of, what she thought was, tea.

Remus, she thought, could last as long it took to find the right flowers, but he had left escorting Peter out of the shop five minutes ago after he (Peter) had a sneezing fest.

James, although he looked extremely out of place and jumpy (Muggle places made him anxious as well), seemed like he could last for the entire flower-picking session. . .until now. Lily noticed his eyes kept darting (when they weren't looking over at her) to the door and to the window which showed Remus and Peter standing outside (Peter still sneezing every few minutes).

"Yes, I think it is. Maybe you should go check on them." Lily said. James looked over at her and Lily realized at the last minute that she was rather expressionless, so she smiled slightly at him. He smiled lopsidely back at her. She felt strange acting this way around James. She wasn't that use to smiling at him. Sure, _he_ smiled at her all the time at Hogwarts, but she never smiled back (well, on a few occasions). Her face flushed.

"Okay, yeah, I'll go check on them. I should probably go check on Sirius too, he's been gone for _ages_."

Carol twirled a pair of violets in her right hand,"Yes, you should find Sirius, James. There's a friend of mine that works here that I'm sure he'd _love_ to meet-" she said, looking in the direction of the cash register where a women that look about their age (not fifteen, but eighteen). Lily had had taken her mother's elbow,"How about we take a look at those chrysanthemums, mum?" She said, rolling her eyes at James and cracking another awkward smile. Lily let go of James' hand and led Carol away, not letting her finish the topic of Sirius meeting her friend. Glancing back, she could see James still smiling at her.

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"Do you want a refill on your water, Remus?" Carol asked later that night at a nice restaurant a few blocks from the florist. The boys had found something good out of this trip today: Food.

"No, thanks." Remus answered quickly, waving his hand a little to add more meaning to the words.

Carol nodded disappointly. She had noticed that one of her friends that worked as a waitress at the restaurant was working that day. Ever since they had gotten a table, Carol had done everything possible to bring the waitress by the table as much as possible. That was third time in the last twenty minutes Remus had been asked if he wanted his water refilled. Sirius had been inquired twice since he finished his dinner if he wanted dessert and Peter had been asked a whopping five times if he need anymore sugar for his tea. He had declined.

Carol was a matchmaker. That was all there was to it. The marriage between the Evans' mailman and the neighbors daughter across the street was Carol's doing.Petunia had met Vernon through Carol-though, it was more of a coincidence there. Carol had actually wanted Petunia to meet a friend of Vernon's, not Vernon himself. James (Yes,James Potter) was invited over for tea at the Evans' during the summer holidays between sixth and seventh year (the current fifteen year old Lily did not know this of course). Even James (Yes,James Potter) was invited over for tea at the Evans' during the summer holidays between sixth and seventh year (the current fifteen year old Lily did not know this, of course).

if there was a special occasion (say, James and Lily's upcoming wedding) on the way, Carol was really in the matchmaking mood. Remus, Peter, and Sirius might as well realize they would be getting dates for the wedding, even if Carol had to attach them by handcuffs and write _We're each other's date!_ on their foreheads.

"More sugar, Peter?"

Peter tensed for a moment, tea cup in mid air. His eyes darted to the sugar bowl sitting in the center of the table, brimming almost over the top with sugar. "Er, no thanks."

"Well, if your sure. I'm sure we can get Judy (her waitress friend) over here with more sugar, though-"

"Mum, tell the boys about the flowers we found; you do better at, er, describing things." Lily cut in, saving Peter. That was all it took for matchmaking to be wiped from Carol's mind (for a few minutes, anyway). If there was one thing that got Lily's mother more excited over than matchmaking, it was Lily's wedding.

Peter, along with the rest of the boys, except James who hadn't been asked various times if he needed a refill or dessert, gave Lily a thankful look. She shrugged and made, what she hoped was, a smile on her face. Five minutes past and Carol was still speaking about the flowers. The boys looked like they were beginning to regret Lily bringing up the flowers now and would have rather dealt with Carol's waitress friend.

Lily turned her head to James, who was sitting next to her (she had tried to avoid that, she really had),"How are your parents, James?" She asked, drowning out Carol's ninety miles an hour voice.

James' slightly glazed over in boredom face turned to Lily. He grinned slightly,"They're good."

Lily nodded, the awkward smile that had been following her around most of the day still on her face. She didn't know how to reply.

Silence, for once, fell across the table. It was an awkward silence. The kind where everyone tries to look busy and pretend that they don't notice the awkward silence, which only made the awkward silence worse.

Remus folded his cloth napkin in half very precisely.

Sirius had discreetly used his wand under the table and made his napkin into a bird, sending it flying (with help from his wand) straight into James' head. James rubbed his head and grabbed the bird, glaring at Sirius (there was slightly grin on his face though), then nodded his head pointly to the looking-down-at-her-bowl-of-soup Lily, then nodded his head to a table full of a muggles nearby. Apparently, he was trying to warn Sirius about Lily's wrath and the muggles curiousity if they saw a cloth napkin bird fly across the table and into his head. Sirius shrugged with a smirk on his face. Sirius was probably the best at pretending not to notice the awkward silence.

Peter was probably the worst at trying to pretend not notice the awkward silence and look busy. He had gulped down all of his tea in a few seconds and got a waiter's (to Carol disappoint since it wasn't her waitress friend, and since it wasn't even a woman). The waiter filled his tea cup again and walked away. Peter immediately spooned three large clumps of sugar from the slightly less brimming over the top sugar bowl, pouring them clumsily into the new cup of tea. He then promptly gulped that cup down, just about choking on it. He sat for a few minutes, staring anywhere but the table he was sitting at and the people at that table. Finally, he spoke (to himself, mostly),"I need another cup of tea." Peter began looking around frantically for a waiter or waitress.

James was actually quite calm and collected at the moment, slurping his soup loudly every once and a while, just to get rid of the silence for a few seconds. He looked over at Lily many times; it seemed she was the only interesting thing at the table at the moment. Then again, he was always watching Lily.

Carol was disappointedly stirring her salad around with her fork, looking around every once and a while, wondering where her waitress friend was, Remus' water _was_ looking like it needed a refill.

Lily sat straight up, starring down at her bowl of soup. She was avoiding James' gaze, her soup was rather less uncomfortable than his gaze.

She heard someone clear their throat loudly. Remus, maybe. She looked up. Everything was still the same. No one was looking around for the throat clearer person. Lily turned her head (accidently, of course) to James; he had just turned his own head to look at her. Again. Their eyes meet and James grinned lopsidely (he did that alot, she noticed, grinned lopsidely) at her. Lily's awkward smile came up again before she looked back down to her soup bowl.

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"Now, boys, I assure you this car is just as safe as those, er, broomsticks you fly on." Carol said trying to comfort the four Marauders as she turned the key in the ignition of the Evans' car. Lily was muggle-born so cars weren't that big a deal with her; she was a pro at riding in one, driving a car though, was a different story entirely. The engine roared in the darkness of the night. They were heading back to the Evans household.

They had paid for their food after about ten more minutes of awkward silence; Remus, Sirius, and Peter leaving faster than the others since Carol's waitress friend had been located, Carol, of course, calling her over. The three were gone before Carol could say "Matchmaking".

Peter jumped a foot in the air as they heard the engine. The other three were a little less jumpy (no pun intended). Remus was the least anxious since he was half-blooded and had more experience with riding in cars; he couldn't drive one for his life though. James and Sirius weren't as anxious as Peter, though their eyes were darting around suspicious from the back seat (which was rather crowded with four people, Remus and Carol were in the front seat). Lily had been seated by James, yet again (she tried not to, really she did).

"Are you sure this. . .thing is safe?" Sirius asked warily.

"It's perfectly safe, Sirius." Lily answered for her mother. "If anything, the broomsticks you ride on are more dangerous than this car."

"Broomsticks aren't dangerous!" Sirius sputtered back, James joining Sirius' protest. Lily turned to the window, rolling her eyes. They were just as broom obsessed as they were in fifth year.

Lily leaned her head back against the seat, closing her eyes. "I'm so tired, I think could sleep for a week." She mumbled, the day's events had tired her out.

Carol laughed, keeping her eyes on the road,"Well, that wouldn't work, would it? You'd miss the engagement party Saturday!"

Lily's eyes popped open in alert. The engagement party! It took everything in her not to groan in depression. This Saturday was the engagement party.

"Yeah, Lily. Wouldn't want to miss the engagement party, considering the fact that's it's _your_ engagement party and that James would be quite the lonely engaged man." Sirius joked. Everyone laughed. . .well, er, Lily let out a quick, nervous laugh before shutting up, feeling as though the soup from dinner wasn't going to stay in her stomach very long.

Silence fell again after the laughter died out; it was a comfortable silence this time, not awkward. The car ran over a rock (probably) and it jolted some, Peter jumped again. "What was that?" He asked in panic.

"Oh, a rock probably." Carol said absentmindly.

"What?" Peter asked quickly, squirming around in his seat. He pulled out his wand,"Rocks? We're being attacked by rocks?" He asked quickly, looking about, cranning his neck to look behind him, through the back window. Peter noticed no else looked panicked like him,"What's with you? We're being attacked by rocks and you just sit there!"

"What are you _talking_ about, Peter?" Remus asked bewildered, twisting around through his seat belt to look back at Peter. The others (excluding Carol who's eyes were still on the road, though she did take a second to glance back once) also looking at Peter with a bewildered expression. "The rocks! We're being attacked!" Peter repeated.

James and Sirius, also less experienced and less knowledgeable when it came to cars, began to look panicked as well.

"Should we stop the car?" Sirius asked. "It would be easier to duel the, er, rocks if we could get out." He paused for a second at the word rocks because he had always thought rocks to be harmless (and not living).

"No, we'll be fine-" Carol started.

"We're all going to die!" Peter cut in.

Lily looked exasperatingly at the three panicking idiots sitting in the backseat with her,"What are you talking about, you idio-"

"Does this happen often?" James asked her, his wand out.

"No, because rocks don't attack cars, James. At _all_." Lily said, trying to grab at his wand, not wanting him to send a spell somewhere in the car.

"Should I pull the car over?" Mrs. Evans inquired worriedly.

"Yes, it will be easier to stun them-"

"No, Mrs. Evans, just kept-"

"Are you crazy, Rem-"

"Pull over, mum!" Lily exclaimed, going crazy with all the panic.

Carol quickly pulled over, screeching to a stop. Sirius, who was seated closest to one of the back doors, grabbed at the door,"I'm going to stun every single one of those rocks. . ." He trailed off for a moment. Peter's shouts of panic and James' shouts for Lily to open the door (she was closest to the other door, James next to her) along with Carol, Remus, and Lily's shouts to get the other three calmed down were the only noises.

Sirius looked over at Lily quickly,". . .Er, how do you open the door?"

Lily rolled her eyes, even though she was inwardly amused at the fact that Sirius couldn't open a door. She didn't say anything. Instead, Lily opened her door and just about fell out as James and Sirius scrambled to get out (Peter was more reluctant).

Carol and Remus also got out (both knowing how to open their car doors). Sirius and James stood alert, wands at the ready. James put an arm roughly around Lily's shoulder pulling her close to him,"Get your wand out, Lily!" He exclaimed. "Sirius, Remus, watch over Mrs. Evans!" He added.

Lily looked up at James funnily. She stared at him for few seconds trying to figure out what he was doing, holding on to her so tightly for. She finally realized that he was trying to. . .to protect her from the, er, so called rocks. She flushed and stood rigidly by his side.

Silence. Car drives by. Silence. Dog barks. Car drives by. Silence.

"Where. . .Where are the rocks?" James asked in confusion, his grip on Lily's shoulder and on his wand, loosening.

"There aren't any rocks, dear." Carol replied.

"What?" Sirius asked quickly, Peter repeating his statement.

"I told you rocks don't attack cars." Lily answered. There was a brief silence as the three confused wizards registered what had happened in their heads.

Remus covered his laughed with his hand. Carol had a broad smile on her face. Lily looked like a real grin was starting to come onto her face.

"Oh. . ." Sirius trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck while slowly putting his wand away. He quickly slide back into the backseat of the car. Peter did the same. James chuckled weakly,"Well, then. . ." He trailed off, running a hand through his hair and then putting his wand away. His arm slowly left Lily's shoulder and he, too, slide in the backseat of the car.

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"Oh, shut it, Remus." Sirius growled a few minutes later. After the other three had gotten back in the car, Carol started the car and drove off; Sirius, Peter, and James even more tense about riding in a car now. Remus couldn't help but snicker. Lily and Carol both had grins on their faces.

"You three were acting like a bunch of idiots!" Remus stated from the front seat.

The three grumbled.

"Now, now, Remus. It isn't their fault they haven't ridden that much in a car." Carol said, trying to make them feel better. It wasn't working that well.

Lily chuckled softly as James turned his head towards her,"Just what are you laughing about?" he asked.

"You thought _rocks_ were _attacking_ the _car_." Lily answered swiftly.

"Well. . .how was I suppose to know?" James replied moodily; there was a slight smile on his face though. Lily kept the grin on her face; it was just too funny. James finally gave in and laughed quietly.

Lily shook her head and look out the window; humor starting to disappear from her face. She sighed deeply. This world-this life was was starting to become the present for Lily. Her fifth year at Hogwarts was beginning to become the past. It was something that she remembered vividly. It had been only a week since she had woken up here, yet it seemed so much longer.

She suddenly felt years older (well, she actually _was_ years older, but she felt years older in a figurative sense right now) with the despair of knowing that she might never go back to her old life.

Lily longed to be her fifteen year old self again. She longed for the five foot essays and even Professor Binn's History of Magic class that dragged on for what seemed like hours at a time, when in reality it was only an hour. Lily even missed, in a way, fifteen year old git Potter and his flirtatious, arrogant ways.

Just as she was about to doze off, Lily felt James' hand intertwine with hers. She looked down sharply, fully awake now. Her head came to see James' face, expecting him to be looking at her like he always seemed to do, only to find that instead he was looking foward, a goofy smile playing on his face.

Lily, for a moment, thought of pretending to yawn and stretch out her arms, therefore finding a excuse to let go of James' hand. But she didn't. She left her hand right where it was.

For some reason, Lily didn't feel figuratively years older now . . .

. . .In fact, she felt strangely giddy.

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**Did you enjoy the chapter? Hope so! **

**Eye Heart Music**


	6. Happiness Cut Short

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Author's note: Okay, I've got a lot of people asking why Lily isn't acting like she's in love with James yet and why she isn't saying that's she'll actually marry James yet. Don't worry though, everything's going as planned. Believe me. Oh, also, here's, um, quite a bit of fluff in this chapter. : )**

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_Chapter Six-Happiness Shattered_

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_Tap!_

Lily grumbled groggily and rolled over, face buried in her pillow.

_Tap!_

"Wha-?" She groaned, covering her head with the blanket.

It was Saturday at around 2:30 AM. Lily was sleeping. Obviously. That was what most people did at 2:30 AM in the morning.

She hadn't seen James or his friends since the Attack of the Rocks. Lily wondered what he was doing during that time period. Working? Planning the wedding (Lily snorted at this thought)? Playing quidditch? Out with his friends? Moving furniture into their new house (which she wasn't going to live in since they weren't really getting married)? Was he at Diagon Alley?

Lily didn't really care where or what he was doing, it was just strange that he hadn't visited her over the few days, since he came over just about everyday. Was he mad at her for laughing at him about the whole thinking rocks were attacking their car? She doubted that; he looked quite happy with her in the car, smiling goofily and holding her hand and all.

The engagement party was today, Saturday; James would be there, Lily knew.

_Tap!_

The half asleep (or half awake) girl, groaned again, slowly sitting up in bed, eyes just barely open, scanning her room. Lily had just looking over at the window when there was another-

_Tap!_

She jumped as something small flew up and her window. "What the bloody-_oof_!" Lily, suprised as everything, fell off the bed and onto the floor. She moaned and rubbed her now sore bum, then sat still for a moment, realizing her parents might hear all the racket she was making- actually, she wasn't making _all_ the noise. What was being throw at the window? _Who_ or _what_ was throwing it?

_Tap!_

Lily slowly stood, stumbling groggily to the window, opening it up and leaning out, over the windowsill. Just as she stuck her head out, one of those mysterious something's flew up and hit her right in the forehead. She immediately craddled it with her hands."_Ow_! What in Merlin's Beard is going _on_-?"

"Ooh, er, sorry, Lily love!"

Lily's hands left her now swollen forehead; she looked down. And down just next to her mother's tulips and the bench they (her and James) sat at the first day she woke up eighteen and James said Loved her, was James himself, mouth gapping up at her (or her forehead) in horror.

"Out to show me a romantic evening, James?" She asked rather dryly.

"Well, actually, sure, if that's what you want to call it." James replied, a smirk slowly spreading across his face.

"Your doing a rather bad job, aren't you? First you wake me up at 2:30 in the morning, then you promptly hit me in the head with a rock."

"The rock really wasn't _planned_." James replied doing his ever so annoying habit of messing his hair up. Lily couldn't help but smile softly at his stupid, irritating habit.

"Right." She replied.

"Can I apparate up there?"

Lily took a small step backwards, gulping. "Er, here?" She asked anxiously. She didn't want _James_ in her _bedroom_! What would happen if her parents found him?

"Yeah, there." James answered with a laugh.

Lily crossed her arms and leaned on the windowsill, looking at James. Should she? Who knows what might happen-No, nothing would happen because she would be mature and make _sure_ nothing happened. Right. Right, Lily.

_Awwwwwwwwww, goooooooosh, Lily. Your just soooooooo matureeeee!_

The bleeding wedding dress. Wonderful. Lily was wondering when it would show up.

"In here?" She squeaked again as she pointed over her shoulder, into the bedroom.

James tilted his head back some and peered at her with squinted eyes, a funny smile on his face,"Yeah, there. Got something to hide, Lily?" He asked jokily.

Lily gave a small nervous laugh, along with some giggling, since she was obviously nervous. "No." She answered quickly, for reasons she didn't know. She really _didn't_ have anything to hide in her room. James opened his mouth to reply, but Lily suddenly cut him off,"Wait. Why didn't you just apparate here in the first place. You know, instead of throwing rocks at my window and head." She unconciously rubbed her forehead.

James shrugged,"Well, I _am_ a gentleman,",she rolled her eyes," Besides, I didn't want to startle you." He finished. Lily had to agree. Waking up to see James Potter's face right next to hers' _would_ be a bit startling.

Lily looked over at a bunch of rose bushes close by, thinking. What was she to do? Let him apparate up here? Not let him? He'd probably apparate up her anyways, if she said no, thinking something was wrong.

She giggled shakily and replied,". . .Okay. . ."

In a blink of an eye, James disappeared with a small crack. She peered around outside, taking deep breathes. Honestly, she wasn't cut out for this being engaged (especially to James Potter) stuff.

Lily felt a tug of her long hair and spun around to see James smiling teasingly at her,"Startled much?" She gave him a small push in the arm,"_No._ I was just. . ."

"Being startled?" James helped out.

She ignored his comment and changed the subject calmly, as if the two weren't standing in the middle of her bedroom at 2:30 in the morning,"So, what are you doing here, anyways? The engagement party isn't till noon, James. Is your clock wrong?"

"Yeah, it was very wrong. So wrong that I ended up coming about eleven hours early." He sighed deeply and shrugged again,"I guess I should just stay here till then." James turned his head and scanned around the room,"Your room's, er, nice."

Lily didn't know if he was making fun of her room by stumbling over his words or it was something else. Nervousness? Had he never been in her bedroom before? She had thought him visiting tonight was just a regular thing he did. Maybe not.

They stood for a few moments, Lily vaguely wondered at his words, questions swarming her head like a bunch of angry bees. The silence was agonizing. Should she say something? Should she not? Should she move away from him? Closer to him? Should she look into his eyes? Should she look over his shoulder? What was she suppose to do? It wasn't every night Lily had her fiance (not really, though, since she knew the wedding just wouldn't take place) in her bedroom alone, in the dark. Not that she wanted James to be there. She finally decided to gaze at James' forehead.

James stood in front of Lily in what seemed to her as an awkward way. She didn't know. . .He bit his lip, studying her face, hands fidgiting at his sides. Lily. . .

. . .He abruptly took Lily's face in his hands and kissed her quickly. Lily was suprised, to say the least. Her heart pounded at the suddenness. None the less, she replied back, feeling as though James would get suspicious if his fiancee just stopped kissing him. His hands left Lily's face, pulled her closer, encircling his arms around her waist; hands traveling up and down her back slowly.

Lily was trembling.

Whether it was from the suddeness, nervousness, or something else, she wasn't sure. Hesitantly, her hands eventually found James' shoulders, pulling him down closer to her level. Lily heard him groan and wondered in horror if she was a bad kisser (or now it be more appropriate to call her a "snogger", if that was actually a word), after all, it was her first, ahem, snogging session. She felt his mouth grin slightly against hers. There were two possible reasons for this. One: He was making fun of her bad kissing (or snogging) skills. Two: He was actually enjoying their kissing (or snogging).

She really didn't know what to do. About the kissing or the touching. Or James' kissing or his touching. Or the very distracting fact (to Lily) that they were getting closer and closer to her bed. Or the fact that she was panicking like crazy inwardly, panicking outwardly coming up soon. Or the fact that her head felt strangely dizzy and fuzzy. _Or_ that Lily was feeling another full blown giggling session coming.

She felt so. . ._bizarre_. This feeling of kissing James made her feel so different; Lily had never felt this way. She'd never snogged before either, though, so maybe this was how you always felt when snogging with _anyone_.

"I love you-" James began softly kissing her neck,"-so much."

Now Lily thought her heart was going to just burst. This was too much. Why, oh why, did _any_ of this have to happen to her? Was she just _that_ lucky? Or maybe she should say unlucky. Lily couldn't decide.

She hadn't even imagined that James would kiss her neck-not that she imagined him kissing her in the first place. . .

Lily swore she felt James' hands brush lightly against her bum, but only found a few seconds later that it was actually the bed that was brushing against her bum. She was, er, happy that it wasn't, er, James that, er. . .brushed against her, er, bum. Yeah. Lily didn't think she could that; she was shaking even more.

She stopped and locked her legs stiffly, refusing to move closer to the bed, still kissing James. He noticed her reluctance to move and lightly brushed his lips on hers,"It's okay, Lily. It's okay. . ." He repeated over and over for a few seconds then trailed off slowly and-to Lily's astonishment, it seemed as though James sounded nervous. Shy. Awkward. It took alot to get James Potter shy. Lily felt a little better at this thought. Maybe she wasn't the only one nervous as everything right now. . .

They pulled apart, James' arms still around Lily, holding her tightly. Lily sighed in replief (hoping it didn't sound real relief-y to James). James leaned his head on her bruised forehead (she winced slightly) and sighed, looking into her eyes,"You know how I am around you, Lily. Your like firewhiskey. . ."

Lily was offended by this statement. She was nothing like firewhiskey, thank you very much. She smelt nothing like it, looked nothing like-

". . .Your intoxicating." His voice barely above a whisper.

Oh, well, er, maybe she misunderstood. She gulped at his words. They were so. . .real? Of course they were real! They had meaning. That's what she was looking for. Meaning.

Of course, just at that moment, she had reached her nervous breakdown level and began to giggling violently (trying not to make too much noise; her parents might hear).

James pulled back slightly, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses,"Do you think my poetic words are that funny? Or are you nervous?"

Lily couldn't stop giggling.

She pulled away from James, not answering, and sat down on the edge of the bed. Lily just couldn't believe or understand what had just happened. She couldn't believe or understand anything that had happened since the first moment she woke up eighteen in the first place!

Lily felt the mattress shift cautiously as James also sat down on her right. Close; not at all to Lily's surprise now a days. "My words really aren't _that_ cheesy, Lily. . .are they?" James asked with a slight frown on his face.

She stopped giggling for a few seconds,"Oh, no. They're not cheesy, James!" And Lily meant that. They weren't. They had meaning. They were real. They were true. She felt guilt at the thought of not marrying him. "It's just, you, er, reminded me of a firewhiskey joke someone, er, told me-yes, told me along time ago." That was an incredibly quick lie. An incredibly quick, lame lie.The two sat for a few minutes looking about the room, occasionally looking over at each other.

Lily yawned. James yawned seconds after her,"You made me yawn." He stated looking down her tiredly.

"So sorry." Lily mumbled yawning again.

James yawned again. "You did it again!"

"Well, James, if you think about it, I _do_ have a reason for yawning. It's 2:45 _in the morning_. And really it's your own fault your yawning because _you_ woke _me_ me." Lily explained.

James yawned. "Right. Sorry."

Lily's eyes drooped slowly, her head falling onto James' shoulder. James looked down at her and smiled sleepily, eyes also drooping,"Say you love me."

The girls' eyes barely opened at this statement. Actually, Lily hardly heard it. Yet, she still hesitated a moment or two. If she wasn't so tired right then, Lily could have come up with some excuse to get out of saying the L word to James, but right. . .she was tired. She had to say it; it was the only option. She gulped slowly and parted her lips,"I. . .love you, James." There. She'd said it. It seemed so. . .so strange saying those words. . .

. . .But not revolting or disgusting. It didn't make her choke to death saying the words. The words flowed smoothly through her lip; not bitterly. Lily didn't struggle to get the words out. Was this the same way with everyone? Was it that easy to say you loved someone, yet not really love them? Or was there something more that she couldn't understand?

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Lily woke to the sound of her mother bustling downstairs, cooking breakfast she guessed. She felt James' arms around her, holding her.

She felt. . ._nice_. Lily didn't like feeling nice. Well, if James Potter was the _reason_ for feeling nice, then she didn't want to.

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"Banana."

"Ew."

"What's wrong with banana ice cream?" James asked, an eyebrow raised as Lily swallowed her chocolate ice cream.

"It's _banana_, James. That's all there is to it!" She replied as though the answer was _so_obvious.

It was around three-ish and the engagement party had ended an hour ago. Lily would rather have called it a guilt party consider it was a party celebrating an engagement that wasn't real. And the wedding dress wasn't helping at all.

_I helpppppeeddd quittte a bit thaaaaaank youuuuu very much!_

Lily rolled her eyes as James was going on about the wonders of banana ice cream. The two had ended up at Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlor at Diagon Alley, after the party, talking about nonsense. Lily was actually glad they were talking about nothing since all she wanted to do now is forget about the whole guilt party.

"When will we be seeing the grandchildren, Lily? I want grandchildren!"

"You two haven't been enjoying each other _too_ much yet, have you?"

"So. . .where's the honeymoon?"

It was _awful_. And _embarrassing_. Those were only a few comments.

"-and what's your deal with chocolate and licorice wand ice cream?" James asked, taking a huge bite of banana ice cream.

Her lips pursed,"Chocolate and licorice wand ice cream very nice."

"Uh, huh." James said in a non-believing face. Lily gave a short nod and took another bite of ice cream. James smirked, taking a scoop of ice cream in his spoon and flicking it at an unknowing Lily.

She froze in mid-bite.

Lily's head slowly came up, glaring at James. She snatched up a napkin wiping up her face. "Did you just _flick_ ice cream at me?"

"I think I just did."

Lily nodded, a tight smile on her face. She slowly, but confidently lifting her ice cream cone (she had a cone, James had a bowl) to James face, rubbing it right in the middle of his bemused face.

She smirked.

"You just-"

"Returned the favor." Lily cut him off, still smirking proudly at James.

James slowly took off his now ice cream covered glasses, grabbed a napkin, then wiped them off. "This is cold." He said, an amused look on his face, now wiping up his ice cream covered face.

"Well, if I'm correct, ice cream's _suppose_ to be cold. If you want, I'll go ask-" Lily said, starting to get up. James reached over and grabbed her arm, "That's okay. I'm good."

"Are you sure-?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah." James assured her, a smirk on his face.

Lily shrugged, sitting down again, a cheeky smirk on her face. She laughed for a moment before turning her attention to a little boy sitting at a table with his parents (she supposed), licking ice cream. He bursted out giggling as his fathers ice cream (vanilla and chocolate frogs) fell out of his cone and to the floor below. The mother shook her head while sending her husband a disapproving look. The husband shrugged sheepishly while magically banishing the ice cream and sharing a laugh with his son while the mother wasn't looking. The child giggled harder. Lily saw the mother look over at the two sharing the laughter without them noticing, the mother smiled affectionately. Soon, the father got up to get another ice cream cone. Would that been her and James if she actually went through with this engagement? She didn't know. . .

Next to that table was couple that look about sixteen, smiling shyly at each other while eating their ice cream. They reminded her of herself at fifteen-wait! She _was_ fifteen!. . .Just eighteen. . .at the same time. Whatever. She remembered going on a few dates the past year. They were filled with sweaty hands, shy looks, and awkward silence.

A few tables away, by the window, was an elderly man sitting alone, peacefully reading a book, no ice cream in sight. He smiled softly at whatever he was reading, chuckling at some points. Lily wished she could read right now.

She turned to James. He was talking about something. Lily couldn't hear him. She couldn't hear anything. All sound was blocked out. He had a dimple when he smiled. Of course he did, though. James Potter was always laughing and smiling (and smirking). His hair was as messy as ever. He liked it that way. He was smiling at her, laughing. What was he saying?

Lily looked back over at the family, father still waiting in line to get another ice cream cone. He looked over his shoulder back at his wife. He smiled at her as he caught her eye. She smiled softly back. Their son tugged at his mothers sleeve, breaking their smile. The mother gave one last smile before turning to her son. She tilted her head, listening to him, she laughed as he pointed at his ice cream. They were happy.

The sixteen year old's hesitantly edged their hands across their small round table. They were happy.

The elderly man was chuckling again as he turned a page in his book. He was happy.

She turned back to James. He was still smiling at her, like he did almost all the time (including at Hogwarts). He was happy.

She smiled hestitantly back. Lily was-she was. . .content.

"Just can't get enough of my good looks, can you, Lily?" James asked teasingly, unconsciously running a hand through his hair.

Lily gave a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Yes, James. I just can't get enough."

He leaned back in his chair arrogantly, smirking. "Knew it."

"Your so conceited, James Potter." Lily commented, licking her ice cream.

"I was thinking more along the lines of wonderful, but whatever levitates your feather, love." Lily forgot James made up stupid sayings like that. He did it _all_ the time at Hogwarts.

As Lily opened her mouth to reply, a chilling phrase rang through the air.

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

Lily's head swerved in the direction of the deadly curse, James standing already, wand at the ready. There was silence for a few seconds, the crowd letting what was had just happened settle in their minds. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Standing by the window of the elderly man was at least ten cloaked figures, masks covering their faces. Then she shifted her gaze to the floor.

The elderly man.

Tears blurred Lily's vision as everything clicked in her mind.

He was dead. The mysterious figures had killed them.

She put a hand to her mouth, choking back a sob as there was a scream in horror. It was like the domino effect. One scream, making another scream, and another and another till all Lily could hear was screams. People were everywhere. Running, screaming, crying. Being tortured by the horrible masked figures, begging for mercy. . .dying.

Lily couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She didn't know what to do as tears poured down her face from the shock, fear and sadness of the old man's death.

"James?"

The words were soft unexpected. Yet, they were the first to come out her mouth. Lily stumbled from her chair shakingly pulling out her wand, her knuckles going white on the wand grip. She looked around frantically, not seeing James. There was too much chaos. She had lost him. Where was he? Was he alright?

She spoke louder this time,"James! James, where are you?. . .James!"

Her eyes drifted from the father struggling to get through the crowd to his family, still at their table. Her eyes watched as a masked figure got there first. The mysterious figure's wand rose slowly, as if in slow motion, to the mother and little boy, who was being held behind his mother's back, crying. Tears streamed down the mothers face as well.

Or was that her own tears?

Lily couldn't hear again. She could see the words form on the horrible figure's lips form.

_Avada Kedavra_. . .

The mother fell to the floor with a dull thump, eyes blank and lifeless. The boy sat on the floor shaking next his lifeless mother. Lily had to move. She had to save him. But she couldn't.

Again. . .

. . ._Avada Kedavra_. . .

Lily let out a sob.

How could so much happiness be shattered so quickly?

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**A/N: I felt horrible writing the last part here. Just awful. I'll do the REVIEW RESPONSES in the morning before I go to school, so expect them pretty early (on LIVEJOURNAL).**

**Eye Heart Music**


	7. Reunions

**Disclaimer: Don't own a thing.**

**A/N: Okay, sorry, but this chapter is very short! I hate to make it short, but, well, I just feel that this is all I should add to this chapter without messing it up. This is much more angsty then some of the past chapters, that's for sure. Tell me what you think of it. I don't write much angst, so I hope I did okay. . .**

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_Reunions_

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"Lily, over here!" Lily desperately spun around and around until she was dizzy, where was he? She had heard James. She did. Lily held her wand further outward as she saw one of the masked figures walk pass her, heading towards a group of children, perhaps only nine or ten years old. They cowered behind an over turned table, ice cream spilt all over the floor around them. She took a deep, shaky breath and pointed her wand at figure, successfully stunning him (or her).

As she made her way over to the children, tears were still streaming down her face and she couldn't feel her legs. Lily was surprised they actually worked at the moment. She finally made it to the table, grabbing hold of the overturned edge, supporting herself. She opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't. She couldn't _breath_. It was too hard. The children sat still, some crying, some watching Lily, some watching everything else. Lily shook her head and gulped, turning to the children. She stared at them for few seconds.

It wasn't right. It wasn't right that they had to be here. Now. Seeing people die. Wondering they'll be next. That wasn't right. They should be having fun, eating ice cream while joking about with their friends. None of this was right. _No one_ should be here. Now. _No one_. Yet, it still happened. This was reality. This was _life_.

Licking her lips, Lily spoke softly, choking up every few seconds,"We-We need-. . .to get out-we've got to get of here-" She ducked behind the table with the children as a curse was sent whizzing past her,"I'm going to count to three-" Lily back up further as _avada kedavra_ was sent in their direction, luckily hitting the table instead of a person. She bumped into something behind her. Lily quickly turned, afraid it was one of those figures. It wasn't.

It was a middle-aged women. Dead.

Lily quickly turned back to the children, trying her best (which wasn't much right now) to ignore the body behind her. A girl with brown hair sobbed,"I don't want to die! Please don't let them kill me! Please!" The others began with her. Lily hurridly pulled the small group close to her, trying to shield them,"It will be alright. . .it will be fine. I won't let them hurt you. . ." A mute sob escaped her as she covered her mouth quickly, hiding her head from the children, afraid to let them see she was just as afraid as they were. They had already seen her crying though, so it didn't much matter. "It will be alright. . ."

She could see, out of the corner of her eyes, green flashes of the death curse everywhere. Avada kedavra. Two simple words and everything was gone. Everything. . .

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Lily pulled her sweater closer to her as she searched for James' face in the crowd. Aurors (she had studying them in DADA and in the library on her own time quite often) had come in and were able to fight off the Deatheaters, as Lily found they were called. She had stayed behind the overturned table till the aurors arrived, stunning four deatheaters that had come nearby. She'd heard the word "deatheaters" only a few times in fifth year and a few times during her short time as a eighteen year old fiancee of James Potter.

She had to find him.

What had happened to him? Was he alright? Was he even alive? What if he wasn't? What if James wasn't alright? What would she do? What would happen?

She had to find him.

"Excuse me, sir, have you seen-. . ." Lily trailed off as she realized the man she had started to ask about the wereabouts of James, was mumbling to himself; Lily could hear what he was saying, yet none of it made sense. "Are. . .Are you alright?" Lily thought this a stupid question considering what had just taken place. She carefully placed a hand on his shoulder. He pulled away and stared at her with a strange eyes. His eyes weren't right in some way. There was something wrong with this man.

"He was-He was put under the crucio curse." A young woman, about Lily's age stuttered, walking up to the man Lily was speaking to, healer and younger man behind him. They took no noticed of Lily.

The healer sighed as he examined the man,"I'm afraid. . .I'm afraid your father has been driven to insanity."

Lily turned and walk away, not want to hear more. Unfortunately, she could hear the grief-stricken cries. She began to stumble around more frantically, afraid of what she'd find of James. If only she hadn't of been so afraid! So much of a coward! If only she had pulled herself together; she could have stayed with James! It was her fault they had been separated. And if anything-_anything_-happened to James, it would be her fault. She felt so foolish. So stupid. So helpless. Lily could have helped fight off the deatheaters. She should have.

She knew for certain James had been off fighting and dueling like a hero. No, Lily hadn't actually seen James out being a hero, saving people and warding off deatheaters. She just knew James Potter well enough to know he wouldn't-_couldn't_-just stand back and hide. He had to have action. He had to be part of the action. He had to _be_ the action. Even if it was dangerous. The stupid prat. She was a hypocrite saying that, seeing as she was just as much a stupid prat, cowering away and being weak during the attack as James was for risking everything for action. He was Gryffindor, so of course James had to be brave. . .wasn't she a Gryffindor too? Shouldn't she have been like James and fought the deatheaters? Conquered her fears?

Part of her was saying she had a right to hide and sob behind a table seeing as she had never been through an attack before. Another part of herself said that she could have done what James had done. Lily just didn't know if she believed that part of her as much. She admired James for having such courage during such horrible times, yet she still thought him a silly prick for risking so much.

Who would annoy her to no end if he died? Who would help fight off a bunch of "terrifying" rocks? Who would accidental throw rocks at her head in the middle of the night? Who would stand awkwardly in the middle of a flower shop for her? Who would bring his weirdo friends over to her house? Who would kiss her (not that kisses actually mattered)? Who would smile at her like he always did? Who would gaze at her all the time with those hazel eyes?

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"Lily!"

She spun quickly around for what seemed like the thousandth time in the past twenty minutes of searching the ice cream parlor. To her relief, James was limping over to her, his right leg bleeding slightly. Other than that, he seemed fine. Lily stood for moment, mouth open. She sighed and a cry of relief came out as tears came down her face. She walked quickly to him, hugging him. He held her tightly in his arms,"Are you alright? I couldn't find you and-"

"You stupid prat! You could have been killed!" Lily exclaimed looking up into his face. "I was so worried!"

"Woah, calm down, Lily. Calm down. . .everything's fine now. Everything's fine." James murmured over and over into her hair, as if to help reassure himself as well as Lily. His face showed no trace of the laughing face he had on only an hour ago, before the attack. He lightly stroked her hair, breathing deeply.

Lily closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. Calming down. She realized her behavior to James. She had just about _ran_ to him, _hugging_ him for dear life it seemed. Lily didn't think that was natural. But then she supposed it was because of the attack. She didn't want James dead or gone, even though he could be quite annoying when he wanted to be. Yes, it was just the attack jumbling her thoughts around. That's the only reason for hugging James like that. . .

She was happy for him to be here, alive. That's all that mattered. They had survived.

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Lily never found out what happened to the young happy couple or the father of the wife and son who had been murdered right before her eyes. Frankly, apart of her, deep down, didn't want to know, afraid of the truth. Afraid of what fate they had suffered.

She rolled over in her bed, pulling the covers closer to her, shivering from sadness, not coldness. It was night now. Lily had went with James to get his leg fixed by a nearby healer after their reunion. After, they immediately flooed (Lily said she just wasn't up to apparating right then) to her home. James stayed for an hour or so, never letting Lily out his sight, it seemed. He was quiet though. So quiet. Everything was quiet. Even Carol. Lily's parents were bewildered, only understanding the part of being attacked. Lily was tired and grief-filled. James the same as Lily. He offered to stay with her for a while longer, but Lily said she'd be fine, knowing she would definitely _not_ be fine. He left.

Now she lay in her bed several hours later after her mother pestering in knowing what had happened. It was about midnight now and Lily only wished for sleep to come so she could leave the miserable images and memories of earlier that day.

She sighed, looking towards the window for moment. A part of her, for one reason or another wanted to see rocks being thrown at that window, leaving a _Tap!_ A part of her, wanted James to hold her like he did the night before. She felt so lonely, so. . .empty.

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**A/N: Sad chappie. Sad. This chapter was originally going to be longer because I was going to add the next wedding preparation event, but I thought maybe the aftermath of the attack should have a chapter of its own, that the wedding preparations would sort of take the spoitlight off the horrible reality of the deatheater attack. I plan for there to be two more chapters for this story; they'll be sort of parts one and two since they could basically going together in one superchapter.**

**I realize the reviews for chapter five were not answered, one thing led to another and I was never able to reply. Sorry!**

**Eye Heart Music**


	8. The Memories of Lily Evans

**Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own anything.**

**A/N: Hi. The "dum"'s and "dee"'s at the beginning here are the wedding march song. . .**

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_Chapter Eight_

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_Dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . .dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . ._

The church was beautiful. It was the church Lily always dreamed of getting married in. She would daydream about the day she'd walk down the red carpeted aisle, pews on either side of her, her father at her side, soon-to-be husband waiting at the end of the aisle for her.

_. . .Dum. . .dum. . .dee. . dum. . .dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum_

Sunlight flooding in through the stain-glass windows, showing her beautiful, white wedding dress and her bouquet of roses. She was surrounded by her friends and family. Even her sister.

_Dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .du_-

"Wait, I didn't start with the music!" A young woman around the age of nineteen or twenty exclaimed anxiously at the end of the church aisle. Exasperated sighes where heard yet again.

It was two in the afternoon on Thursday. The wedding was tomorrow. The said people sighing in exasperation and the said nineteen/twenty year old women were at the wedding rehearsal. The young woman was Lily's maid of honor, Emily. She was a muggle. She knew nothing about magic or the magical world. James' best man was, not at all to Lily's surprise, Sirius. There was no ring bearer; Sirius was to give them the rings.

The funny thing about Lily's maid of honor was that, she had NO idea who this Emily was. She didn't know any Emily while she was fifteen. She didn't recall any childhood muggle friends by the name of Emily. Actually, Lily didn't recall _any_ muggle friends, childhood or not, by the name of Emily.

All Lily knew, was that, Emily was a very on-edge, nervous sort of person. Lily wondered if she actually let this wedding go through and she didn't call it off within the next few hours or. . .er, _sometime_ between now and four in the afternoon tomorrow, that if Emily wouldn't hyperventilate down the aisle during the wedding. She would bet anything that Emily would be more nervous than her, the bride, before the wedding. Which was _not_ taking place-Lily really _was_ going to call it off soon. She had too.

Even though she was going to call off the wedding, Lily felt bad, seeing as how James actually was a decent bloke after all. She had spent the past week with him, working out last minute wedding details (Carol joining in most of the time. Lily like that, since she really didn't want to mess with a wedding that wouldn't happen, the guilt was awful) or just spending time together.

"Emily, dear, you seemed to start with the music fine." Mrs. Potter said from the front of the front pews on the right, where the grooms family and friends traditionally sat.

The maid of honor shook her head dramatically,"No, I was just off. If that happened during the wedding-oh, no! That would be _awful_!"

Carol nodded in agreement thoughtfully from the front pew on the leftside, where the bride's family and friends would be sitting tomorrow. George rubbed his forehead between his hand, sneezing he came to close to the bouquet of roses that hung at the end of pew he had just impatiently plopped down onto. Sirius and James stood at the front of the church with the priest. They where hiding their smirks from a ever watchful Lily, who stood at the back of the church, next George. Remus and Peter sat in the pews near the middle, watching with amusement. . .

The two never went to the ice cream parlor though. No one had. It had been closed ever since the attack. Lily wondered if it would ever open again, the owner was fine, but she still wondered if he had the courage to open it up, risking another attack. Business would definitely lessen if it did. Many would be too afraid of another attack occuring.

James and Lily never spoke of the attack surprisingly. Lily had not slept much that night (not to mention any other night) after the attack. She was so afraid and shaken from the previous events. Angry and ashamed at herself for not being able to help more during the attack. Empty and lonely, strangely enough, images of James coming to her mind when she felt the loneliest. Confused at the loss of reasons for being so scared for James during the attack. Sure, she had a heart just like anyone; Lily would never want James Potter hurt or worse, dead, but still, she felt as though there was something more behind that reason.

When James' friends came over with him (rather reluctant with a Still Trying To Find Them Dates For the Wedding Carol prowling around the house), they seemed to want to talk about the horrible incident, but James had silenced them everytime with a Look. She was grateful that James understood that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Let's try it again, then." Lily said tiresomely, yet quickly. Her eyes were quite dull, drooping every so often from the lack of sleep she had gotten since the attack. Everyone around her had asked many times if she was alright. She said she was fine. Lily wondered why James didn't look as if he hadn't slept well in ages either. Maybe he had went through attacks like that before and had experience with things like that, so he didn't lose sleep over it. Yet, Lily couldn't see how anyone _couldn't_ lose sleep after seeing such horrible things. . .Maybe James did lose sleep, but was just that good at concealing something like lack of sleep.

_Dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . ._

Emily began down the aisle, then stopped after a few seconds, mouth open to say that she wasn't with the music, Lily was certain that was what she was going to say. That was why she (Lily) stepped forward quickly, pushing Emily's back, making her keep walking and not stop. "Just go, Emily. Everything's fine. You're alright."

The maid of honor look hesitant for a few seconds before continuing down the aisle, still looking as if the ground would fall out beneath her any second. Everyone gave relieved sighes as they watched Emily finally reach the front of the church with James, Sirius and the priest. She had made it. _Finally_.

Of course, Carol had to put in a word of congratulations, nice and loud so the whole audience of people could hear,"Wonderful job, Emily!"

Lily only hoped her mum wouldn't do anything like that during the wedding tomorrow. Which wasn't really happening. She just hoped that when she actually _would_ get married, Carol wouldn't do anything like that.

George stood up and linked arms with Lily, giving her a smile, started down the aisle together at the cue of the music for them. The walk was short and they were there in no time. James smiled at her the whole way. She gave him a smile or two before looking away. Would it be the same when-if, _if_ she walked down the aisle tomorrow? Would it be a short and easy walk tomorrow? Would it take longer? Would the aisle be magically longer, by any chance? Would it take an hour instead of three minutes to walk down the aisle? Would Lily be able ignore James' smiles and looks?

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"Would you happen to have a date for the wedding tomorrow, Emily? Because if you don't, I know of some charming, young, last-minute dates for you!" Carol's voice trailed off softer as she and Emily left Lily standing alone in the chapel, seated in middle of the leftside of pews. Everyone had left and gone back to the Evans household for a dinner Carol had prepared that morning before the rehearsal.

She looked around the empty room. It was so much quieter now. Tomorrow it would be even more crowded and suffocating than it was during rehearsal since only Lily and James parents, the priest, Sirius, Emma, Remus, Peter, and the pianoist where actually at rehearsal.

Lily was going insane. She had to call it off tonight. She had to. If she didn't. . .-

"What are you still doing here?"

She looked up to see James standing next to her, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Oh, just thinking." She replied absentmindly.

He sat down next to her,"Ah."

They sat in silence for a while, the only sounds coming from outside where the rest of the rehearsal party stood in the parking lot. The other three Marauders slightly edgy voices discussing how to get to the Evans household: By car or by apparation. They were rather reluctant about the car idea.

"Are you nervous, James?" Lily asked turning slightly to watch the expression on his face as she asked. James looked down at the back of the pew in front of them, a blank look on his face for a moment or two before a lopsided smirk appeared. Lily could see the answer to her question through that smirk. He was just as nervous as she was (yet, she was more nervous about calling off the wedding; not about the wedding itself). Lily looked away with a pang of sadness.

"Well, I doubt I'll ever be as nervous as Emily will be, but, ah, yes. I'm nervous. Terrified, in fact-just, ah, don't tell Sirius and them, I'll never hear the end of it." James said, letting out a laugh.

Lily gave a small laugh as well. A small giggle was more like it. She was nervous. The giggles came along with the nervousness, of course.

"Nervous as well, I see." James said noticing the giggle. Lily nudged him roughly in the shoulder, embarressed as the fact that her nervousness was that obvious. "Oh, don't worry, Lily. We'll get through; no matter if we or Emily, bless her, is sick and throws up our last meal. Even if your dress catches on fire or even if your bouquet catches on fire-"

Lily was getting greener and greener by the second as James brought up all the horrible things that could happen on a wedding day.

"-Even if Sirius somehow accidently swallows the rings or something. Even if the wedding cake falls apart. Even if your dress tears or you spill punch on it. Even if-"

"Okay, James, I think you can make me sick and throw up with those possible events tomorrow, more than nervousness can." Lily looked over at him. James shrugged, a pleasant smile on his face."I reckon it doesn't matter if we're nervous or not. Whatever happens tomorrow, whether it turns out perfectly or if my trousers fall down in the middle of the cermony, I figure we'll still be married by the end of the day, eh?"

He laughed and Lily tried to laugh along with him. They wouldn't be married by the end of the day. It wouldn't be happening. She bit her lip. This the perfect time to call off the wedding. Right now. She opened her mouth.

"All this walking down the aisle has made me hungry, what about you?" Lily was surprised at this words coming out her mouth, seeing as how they had nothing to do with calling off the wedding.

"You read my mind." James leaned over and kissed her cheek, standing up and waiting for her. He held out his hand for Lily. She swallowed, forcing a smile, and took it. "James. . ." She said hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

Lily opened her mouth again, ready to call off the wedding. Her throat closed up though. She couldn't say anything. James raised an eyebrow questionably. Lily's mouth closed quickly and she flushed. What was going to do? She couldn't call off the wedding! It was going to hurt James; yet, she couldn't marry James. That couldn't happen.

Lily lean up and gave him a peck on the mouth, surprising herself more than James. . .

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. . ._Can't I see my fiancee every once and a while?_. . .

She was always going to remember that sentence. Lily lay in bed that night thinking about the past few weeks, finding she couldn't sleep, yet again. That phrase was laughable- wasn't it?

. . ._I love you, Lily. You know that, right?_. . .

Lily lay in bed that night thinking about the past few weeks, finding she couldn't sleep yet again. She thought about the first day she had woken up here. She thought about James saying he loved her as they hugged on the bench.

. . ._You two have something wonderful, Lily. Something not everyone has_. . .

She remember her mother saying that as they sat in their car on the side of the road the day they went searching for a wedding dress. Did they have something not everyone had? Was it wonderful?

. . ._Prats? I don't see any prats around here_. . .

Lily shook her head thinking of James and his prickish comments. They had always, secretly amused her, even at Hogwarts. She would never have been caught saying that to anyone though.

. . ._Alright there, Lily?_. . .

James had said that phrase to her quite often at Hogwarts, without the "Lily" and instead it was "Evans". She wondered what had happened to change that phrase. She wondered what had happened between the two of them all together. What had happened to make her, Lily Evans, James Potter's fiancee?

. . ._Thinking about James, eh?_. . .

Lily clucked her tongue and rolled on her side. That wedding dress never left her alone. Well, maybe for a short time after the attack. She ignored it the best she could, though.

. . ._I'm Mr.Unpredictable, what can I say?_

_Your Mr.Potter, not Mr.Unpredictable._

_You'll be Mrs.Unpredictable with me_. . .

She couldn't be Mrs."Unpredictable" with James. Lily just couldn't. . .could she?-No. No, that wasn't possible. Lily knew it wasn't. It would never work out. This was all for the best-call off the wedding, she meant. If she actually married him, it would be because she felt guilty, that she couldn't break James' heart.

. . ._Well, I had to give you something as a wedding present, so what's better a present than a house?_. . .

He was right; what better a wedding present, than a house? Lily knew her calling off the wedding was definitely not a great present. She was alway horrible at choosing presents-any kind of present.

. . ._Where. . .Where are the rocks?_. . .

Lily laughed softly as she stared at her ceiling. When the "attack of the rocks" actually took place, it was no laughing matter. It was chaos. But, as soon as it was over, it was a laughing matter. It was so funny. She'd never forget that moment.

. . ._Ow! What in Merlin's Beard is going on-?_

_Ooh, er, sorry, Lily love!_. . .

She fingered her forehead slowly. The knot from where James had accidently hit her with a rock that early morning last Saturday was gone. Lily remember his face gaping at her in horror. She shook her head and laughed again. She had also always secretly thought James had a sense of humor (even when he wasn't trying to), even at Hogwarts. And again, she wouldn't ever have been caught saying that to anyone.

. . ._Your intoxicating_. . .

Lily sighed. James Potter just about always, since the moment she had met him at Hogwarts, had a way with words. Even when he was nervous, James would babble non-stop. And the words wouldn't be a big jumble of nothing. They'd be really fast, but not incoherent. James Potter never seemed to be at loss for words. Would he be if-when she called off the wedding?

. . ._Did you just flick ice cream at me?_

_I think I just did_. . .

Lily doubted James would ever grow up entirely. It just wasn't in his nature to be. . .to be, well, _mature_. He would always be a child at heart, no matter how old he was. She admired him for that. So many adults forget what it's like to be young and carefree. Sometimes, she felt as if she was already starting to forget.

. . ._Just can't get enough of my good looks, can you, Lily?_. . .

He was so arrogant. That was also something he'd always be. Arrogant. Lily rolled her eyes.

. . ._Woah, calm down, Lily. Calm down. . .everything's fine now. Everything's fine_. . .

What Lily found strange when James said everything was fine after the attack, was that she believed him. She felt things was be better. That everything _was_ fine. Even if not everything or everyone was fine. She trusted him, Lily realized.

. . ._WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO DIFFICULT, EVANS? I'M NOT THAT BAD!_. . .

Was she difficult? Was he not that bad? Yes and no. Even if James could be so very annoyingly arrogant, prickish and immature, he was only human. He had faults just like every other human being in the world.

Lily sighed and rolled over again restlessly, having no idea how she was going to get through tomorrow.

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**A/N: All of the italized sentences in that last part there were phrases that Lily was remembering from the previous chapters in the story. Most were what James said, although a few had Lily, Carol or the wedding dress saying something. Hope no one was confused. The next chapter is the last! Won't tell what events take place, even though some events are very obvious, LoL! It's 12:40 AM here and I have to get up 7:00 AM tomorrow, so I'll try to get the review responses up later tomorrow.**

**Thanks,**

**Eye Heart Music**


	9. I Do

**Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

**A/N: Wow. I've made it. This is the very last chapter of I Do. I've had fun writing this story and it has to be one of my favorites to write so far. Thanks so much for reading the story and I hope you enjoyed it! Also, I'd like to give a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed the story! Thanks, everyone! And now, here is the chapter we've all been waiting for. . .the chapter that has all (or most) of our questions answered. . .the chapter that has The Big Day-or wait, will there actually _be_ a Big Day with the way Lily's thinking?. . .and will Carol be able to get Remus, Sirius and Peter dates?. . .will Frank ever stop reading the newspaper, rolling his eyes or being sarcastic?. . .will Lily ever go back to her right time period?. . . will James' heart be broken?. . .will Lily's?. . .will I Do be said?. . .I don't know, but we're going to find out. . .NOW! LoL, hope you like this chapter! **

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_Chapter Nine_

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"Okay, breath in. . .breath out. Good. Your doing good. This is the Big Day-" Carol was cut off, patting her back and making sure the paper bag she was breathing in and out of was fully in front of the young woman's face.

"Your-" Breath in. "-right. This is the BIG-" Breath out. "-Day." She replied back to Carol."No reason to be-" Breath in. "-nervous. Just-" Breath out. "-walk down that-" Breath in. "-aisle." She finished with fierce determination. . .well, it was exactly _fierce_. . .not at all actually.

"Emily, maybe you should go outside for a while, get a breath of fresh air." Lily suggested absentmindly from the mirror she stood in front of, to the hyperventilating maid of honor. Honestly, Emily was more nervous than Lily. And Lily still had to figure out how to call of the wedding in-"Half an hour, Lily. You have to do it soon." She reminded herself quietly as she looked at herself with her beautiful (but very annoying), talking wedding dress.

_Your noooootttt going to be callllllling offffff the weeeeedingggg, Lillllly. . ._, the stupid piece of beautiful fabric said to her again. Lily blocked the dress out.

She **was** going to call off the wedding. Lily had decided to tell her mother and father at breakfast that morning, then floo over to James', but her parents were so happy go lucky while they ate their breakfast, smiling and laughing at everything. Even when the mailman accidently gave them the mail for the house next door-which always made her parents furious. The mailman did that at least twice a week it probably.

Anyways, Lily just couldn't wipe those smiles off their happy faces, so she decided to floo over to James' and just call everything off then. Well, that was until Lily decided she'd do her laundry (she'd only done them three days ago, her clothes needed washing!), clean her room (her bookshelf was getting a few dust particals), washing, dry and put away the dishes (well, she hardly ever did them, so, why not give it a go?), weed the garden and take out the trash. And what do you know? Concidentally, Lily had just finished everything just as Carol said it was about time they headed over to the church. Lily decided she'd just catch James at the church. It couldn't be that hard, could it? The church wasn't that big.

Unfortunately, due to the whole, "Groom can't see bride in her wedding dress before wedding" bad luck saying, Lily didn't get a chance to see James since she was imprisoned in the tiny dressing room with twenty females all giggling and laughing, talking Lily's ear off the wall about "not being nervous" and that "everything was going to be fine" and "by the way, your dress is absolutely _darling_, where did you find it?". Finally, after a while, most of the female's left, leaving just Mrs. Evans, Lily and Emily.

Lily clasped her sweaty hands together tightly, squeezing them. She was about ready to join Emily in the hyperventilating club. What was she suppose to do? She had to call off the wedding! She had to! She couldn't do it at the actual wedding cermony, that would be awful. No, that wouldn't work.

"Fifteen minutes before you walk down the aisle, dear." Carol said, smiling brightly at Lily, tearings already starting to form in her eyes. She quickly walked to Lily and hugged her, sniffling. "Both my daughters are out about now!" She sniffled again,"I'm going to be so terribly lonesome with just your father at the house now."

Lily found this quite hard to believe, seeing as her mother was forever going to parties and meeting up for lunch with one or more of her friends. She also had a phone, which Carol used _all_ the time. If anyone would be lonely, Lily decided it would be her father. All of a sudden, for an unknown reason, Lily wanted to cry. Of course, she'd wanted to cry all morning because of the whole not-called-off-the-wedding-yet thing-but right now, right now she really felt as though she was going to cry. Just break down and cry.

"Yes, your no longer my little girl, all grown up and getting married, oh my!-Emily, dear, remember, breath in-. . ." Carol let go of Lily and quickly went back to Emily who had dropped the paper bag and was turning quite green. . .

The bride wished Emily wasn't so nervous right now. The bride needed a shoulder to cry on. To complain on. To call the wedding off on.

Aunt Fanny's head popped in the door,"Lily, dear, your on in five. Emily, are you ready? The wedding march has started." Fanny asked, looking over at Emily. Lily felt as if she were in a show. _Your on in five!_

Carol bit her lip as she hastily pulled the still very green maid of honor up and walked her to the door. Emily stopped by the door and turned to Lily, smiling a forced, weak smile."Good luck, Lily. . .This-This is it!" Then promptly grabbed the door tightly and walked slowly with Aunt Fanny down the hall towards the cermony, bouquet clutched loosely in one hand.

Carol turned to Lily also and smiled reassuringly at Lily's now white, trembling face. She reached out and took one of Lily's hands,"I'm going to go now. . .alright?" Carol bit her lip, looking at Lily face."Everything will be fine, Lily. Don't you worry." Carol laughed lightly,"I remember the minutes just before my wedding. I was so nervous! But then I got to thinking about what your father and I had. We had-and still have-love, Lily. Remember that, dear." Carol leaned over and kissed Lily's forehead and squeezed her hand reassuringly before leaving Lily alone in the room, the wedding march song sounding so distant to Lily.

She wondered what James was doing. She wondered what he was thinking. Was he as nervous as she was right now? Less? More? Did he feel as though he was about ready to throw up his breakfast?

. . ._I love you, Lily. You know that, right?_. . .

She did know that. Maybe that was why she was having such a hard time calling off the wedding. Because he loved her. His heart would most definitely be broken. Lily had a feeling James' heart wouldn't be the only one broken. Her family's. His family's. His friends. Her friends. Their friends. They all would have their hearts broken. They wanted to see the two get married, Lily knew. Everyone one did.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut,"Take me back to Hogwarts. . .please!" She pleaded. She couldn't go out there and down that aisle. She couldn't possibly. It was like the walk of death. Lily just wanted to be home. At Hogwarts. During fifth year. She was fifteen. With her friends. With the stupid pranks the Marauders did. With essays and exams. With even arrogant, immature Potter. She didn't want to be here. She found that ironic, considering this was a wedding, _her_ wedding. Typically, brides were happy on their wedding day. Lily was miserable.

And it just got worse.

"Lily, you ready?"

It was her father. Here to walk her down the aisle. To James. To call off the wedding.

She opened her eyes slowly. Apparently, her pleading and wishing did not work. She was still here, not at Hogwarts. Lily stared at her father vaguely.

"Lily?" George asked concerned, coming in the room fully, towards Lily.

Lily remember yesterday, after rehearsal, when James said whatever happened today, happened. Even if his trousers fell down in the middle of the cermony. Of course, after that, he said that they'd be married no matter what happened. Lily ignored that last part. He was right. Whatever happened, would happen. She tilted her chin upwards, took a deep breath and replied,"Yeah, I'm fine, dad. Just a little. . .nervous. . ."

George chuckled and opened the door for Lily, patting her shoulder as she walked through,"You should see Emily, her face is greener than those eyes of yours."

Her father could always make her laugh. No matter the circumstances. Lily smiled slightly, gulping hard. She wasn't going to cry. She wasn't.

_. . .Dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . .dum. . .dum. . .dee. . .dum. . ._

The wedding march song was getting louder by the second. She could see the pews, overflowing with loved ones, waiting to see such a happy event, not aware of how unhappy it was actually going to turn out. Lily and her father stopped at the beginning of the aisle. She looked slowly around.

There was Remus and Peter, sitting by James' mother and father in the front row, no dates in sight. Apparently, Carol had not found dates for them. Sorry, Carol. Better luck at the next large social event. Her mother sat in the front pew on the leftside, various family members with her. She recgonized most everyone, magical or muggle. Dumbledore was even there!

Then, she saw Sirius up at the front, looking as casual and relaxed as he always did. There was Green Emily too. There was the priest. . .and there-. . .there was James. She gulped. He was staring at her, a goofy smile on his face. He was nervous. She could tell.

It was her cue. It was time. Everyone stood and turned to Lily. A sharp breath overtook her. There were so many of them. She was suffocating. How could she call off the wedding with a gazillion people watching? Argh! Why hadn't she just been honest in the first place, on the first day she woke up here?

They were walking. Lily could hardly tell though. It was like each step took a century. The walk was slower than yesterday, just as she had wondered. The aisle was longer, magically that way or not, she did not know. She couldn't ignore James' gaze and smile. Lily kept her chin held high. If she didn't, Lily knew she'd drop her head and cry as soon as she did. She had to fight her fears and be brave. She couldn't just hide and let someone else take care of everything. She had to settle this once and for all.

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There she was. Her hands craddled in James'. When had that happened? Hadn't she just started down the aisle? Hadn't everyone just been standing watching her walk past, smiles on there faces. Hadn't there just been music going? It was so quiet. When had it gotten so quiet? When had her father left her to sit with her mother? When did the priest start the cermony in the first place.

Everything was happening so quickly.

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Lily watched James' mouth open as he spoke. She couldn't hear him. She couldn't hear anything. Was that her breathing that loudly? Was that her heart beating so loudly? Could anyone else hear it?

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Maybe she should call the wedding off now. . .no, it was rude to interrupt while someone else was speaking. She had been taught that all her life. She couldn't interrupt. She still had time. Time to call off the wedding.

_I love you, Lily. You know that, right?_

Lily couldn't get that sentence off her mind. She couldn't.

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"I do." Lily could vaguely hear James saying that. The priest was looking at her. She could see him out of the corner of her eyes. Lily looked straight into James' eyes, desperately hoping maybe _he_ would back down on the wedding even. Strangely, she didn't look away. She couldn't look away. She couldn't look away from those hazel eyes. She could see countless emotions in those eyes, but one she could very easily see right now. She hated herself for seeing it. She wished it wouldn't be there.

She wished she didn't see the love in his eyes.

Her vision was blurry now; she was crying. She didn't want to do this. But she had too.

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"Do you, Lily, take James to be your lawfully wedded husband?" She heard the priest ask clearly.

Now was her last chance. Her only chance left. She had to call off the wedding _now_. Right as she stared into those hazel eyes.

_I love you, Lily. You know that, right?_

"I do."

Lily stared wide-eyed, tears pouring down her face now. What-what the-What had she _done_? She didn't-She didn't call off the wedding. She had just said "I Do"! She. . .she couldn't have. . .why? Why? Because she didn't want to hurt him? No. . .there was. . .there was something else. What was it? It was right there, right on the tip of her tongue. What was it?

James smiled, opening his mouth. What was he doing? It was the middle of the cermony. "Wake up, Lily."

What?

Suddenly, James' face was blocked out as the church suddenly became overly bright. It was warm. . .

"Wake _up_!"

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It was all a dream.

Everything. Those few weeks she, Lily Evans, had spent as James Potter's eighteen year old fiancee, was a dream.

She had overslept that morning. Her friends had a hard time waking her. The dream seemed so real. . .

She sat in Defense Against the Dark Arts now. The professor was explaining a defense spell. What was it? She could remember. Her mind had been lingering on her dream all morning. Of course, she had seen much of James Potter. The fifteen year old James Potter. Just as arrogant and immature as ever. Yet, she-. . she remembered telling herself the night before the wedding-in her dream-that he was only human, every human had faults. Even if he was extremely annoying.

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"Hello, Evans."

Lily looked up quickly from her book, causing a crick in her neck. She had been studying in the library, trying to find some peace and quiet for a while. Also to find a place to hide from James. She rubbed her neck painfully as James sat down across from her, smirking. She didn't say anything, too confused on whether it should be "Potter" or "James" now. "Heard you slept late this morning. Dreaming about me again, huh?"

If only he knew. . .

"What do you want?" She asked in a to-the-point way.

"Well, I want alot if things-" He began. She cut him off. "What do you want?"

"I was just wondering. . ." James began, rubbing the back of his neck slowly,"if you wanted to go to the kitchens for lunch or something. . ."

She blinked."We just had lunch."

"Oh, well, then. Do you want to-. . .to go for a walk or something, then?" James asked, looking up, straight to Lily.

Lily stared into his eyes again, just like at their wedding-that was so weird saying that now. _Their_ wedding. His eyes were the same hazel as they had always been as he stared at her from across the dusty library table. She was beginning to realize why she hadn't called off the wedding. Why she had said "I do" and not "I don't". That it wasn't just a slip of the tongue; it wasn't an accident; it wasn't because she didn't want to hurt him or break his heart. That it was something that she had meant to do all along, but was just too stubborn to admit it.

"Okay."

Maybe it was time to see if she would ever _really_ say "I do" to James Potter. . .

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_A/N: Oh. My. God. What. Did. You. Think? Was it good? Bad? Horrible? Wonderful? Confusing?I have been waiting so long to type up this chapter. Lily does finally realize she loves James n the end! Finally. Took her long enough, LoL. I hope you liked it! Thanks again for reading and reviewing the story everyone! I've had a really good time writing this and I'm sad it's over. _

_Toodles for now,_

_Eye Heart Music: )_

_P.S. I will be continueing onward with my other three stories now!_


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